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CMA Exam Study Planner to Download and Customize (It’s Free!)

This is the page where you can download my CMA exam study planner, for Gleim and Wiley CMA Learning System, as well as one directly from Hock International. Disclosure: The I Pass Team may earn a small amount of compensation if you purchase from our links; our team uses these revenues to maintain the site and produce awesome free content just for you!

This study planner is essentially an excel spreadsheet that helps you to:

  • Identify the number of study hours you have each week
  • Take into account the vacation days in between
  • Calculate the time required to go through all exam materials based on the number of hours you have
  • Specify the start and ending dates of each study unit so you can closely monitor your progress in the calendar

My CMA Exam Study Planner: Walk Through Video

The spreadsheet is pretty much self-explanatory, but to ensure everyone uses it correctly, I’ve made this screen capture video showing how it works.

Download and Free Trial Area

This file contains worksheets for Part 1 and Part 2, and is automatically downloaded to your computer after clicking. Please check your desktop or download folder:

gleim-study-planner wiley-study-planner hock-study-planner
Gleim CMA Free Trial Wiley CMA free trial (Study planner available
for Hock students only)

Further Explanation on Gleim / Wiley CMA Exam Study Planner

For those who have slower internet connection, you might want to refer to this instruction in text format.

I am showing you a screenshot of the first page of this CMA exam study plan. The area highlighted in yellow is the input area. In other words, don’t type outside the yellow boxes or you may alter the formulas and affect the calculations.

Gleim CMA Exam study planner

1. Mark Your Study Time By the Hour of Each Week

You will see a time schedule from Monday to Sunday, and each day broken down into 20 working hours.

To get started, put an X in each time slot that is available for study. In this example, I need to take care of my kids most of the time, so 2-4pm from Monday to Friday is the only study time I have.

In this case, the total number of hours in each weekday is 2 hours, and the total number of study hours each week is 10 hours.

2. Mark Your Days Off

There are times when you need to take a few days off from the study. Whether it is a scheduled break or a work/family commitment e.g. attending a wedding, you can input the dates in the “days off” column and the study planner will adjust accordingly.

For those who plan to study every day including the weekends, it is most important to schedule some breaks in between to make it a more realistic and workable study plan.

3. Basic Study Mode

Unit 1-13 refer to the study modules presented in Gleim CMA Review System. The title of the units are shown on the lower left hand side of the screenshot above for your information.

The “basic study mode” follows the general suggestions from Dr. Gleim on how to use the Gleim CMA Review System. I also included extra review time based on my own experience.

This default schedule assumes 6 hours on average to complete each study unit, which is more or less what I needed for my own exam. You may also make changes to any of the assumptions in the second page of the spreadsheet if you want to adjust the number of minutes required for each module.

4. Comprehensive Study Mode

The basic study mode assumes you go through the entire Gleim CMA Review System and work on 20 multiple-choice questions in each study unit. In this mode, you will need 61 hours to cover part 1.

In my opinion, working on only 20 MC questions is not enough to pass. So here is comes the comprehensive study mode.

The comprehensive mode assumes that you work on the rest of the practice questions available in the Gleim test prep software. It also includes the time that you need to redo and re-review the incorrect questions. In this example, you will need 122 hours to cover part 1.

Mark It On Your Calendar

You can play around in the yellow input area to create your own optimal study plan. Once it is done, print out the first page of the excel sheet and stick it on the wall so you know the exact time for the study.

It is also a good idea to make the starting and ending date of each study unit on a big wall calendar or your favorite portable device to facilitate tracking of your progress.

Further Explanation on Hock CMA Exam Study Planner

This study planner by Hock assumes that you spend 8-10 hours per week. Both Part 1 and Part 2 review require 16 weeks, which translates to approximately 110 to 150 hours of preparation for each part of the exam. For now, this study planner is in PDF format and is not interactive.

What’s Good about this Study Plan

It is designed by the Hock CMA itself, and therefore, it should match with what the provider is expecting you to cover the materials.

Limitations

The plan is a PDF file, which lacks the flexibility to customize the plan based on your own exam date and schedule. Also, it is very text based and not user-friendly in my opinion. Even if it is not interactive, I prefer a bullet-point format.

Can I Make Suggestions on These Study Planners?

Sure! I welcome any ideas to improve this planner so any suggestion (for your own or general use) is most welcome. I can’t promise to cater every request, but you can certainly drop me a note below or contact me via Facebook and I will see what I can do.

Download The Study Planner and Sign up for Free Trials Today!

gleim-study-planner wiley-study-planner hock-study-planner
Gleim CMA Free Trial Wiley CMA free trial (Study planner available
for Hock students only)

For Your Further Reading

About the Author Stephanie Ng

I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley) and the publisher of this and several accounting professional exam prep sites.

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