How I Approach the CMA Essay Questions

Vinoth is one of our CMA exam bloggers. He documents his CMA journey every Wednesday.

I hope everyone has read my last blog post on multiple-choice questions and that you found it useful. This week, I will talk about how I practice CMA essay questions and the prerequisites for essay preparation.

Each part of the CMA exam has 100 multiple-choice questions and two essays. Still, essays play a major role in passing this examination. You’ll have 60 minutes to complete the CMA essays.

Within these two essays, you have 9 sub-questions (5 and 4, respectively), and they cover all topics on one particular part of the exam. Because of this, your studying should cover the entire portion of the syllabus, and you should be confident in all the concepts.

Types of CMA Essay Questions: Writing and Numerical

Since the examiners do not want to get “stories” from us, we need to provide crisp and clear answers. Keep them short, simple, and to the point so that you can manage your time during the exams.

When solving the problems in the essay, make sure you cover the steps for each calculation. This is because each step carries points. Explain the formulas clearly, and show how you came up with each figure using calculation as required.

Here is my final suggestion: If you are confident and can complete the multiple-choice questions before the 3-hour time period is over, you can use the extra time in your essay section. This is applicable only if you score a minimum of 50% on the MCQ section and are able to move on to the essays.

In terms of study materials, each service provider has its own methodology and tips for the essay sections. But I prefer to use the IMA sample essays as well as Gleim. Gleim provides CMA essay questions as part of its study materials.

Hope this week’s blog post is useful to all of you in your CMA exam essay preparation.

From Stephanie

Thank you for sharing your first-hand experience in the essay section, both regarding preparation and what it looks like on exam day. Readers can also refer to this page for tips.