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Hi stephanie, thank a lot for putting the time and effort to note these pointers to us
ReplyHi Stephanie, I want to ask you the following:
(Theoretically) If I completed the MC part within 2 hours does that mean I have an “additional” hour to utilize with essay part of the exam? Essay will be 2 hours?
Regards,
Saad
yes… but i think its not possible..its upto you..
for essays, 1:15 hours is enough…
try to complete your MC questions in 2:30 hrs…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ramzeen. I agree that if possible, try to allocate more time to the essay. Most of my readers seem to find the MC questions more difficult than the essays though.
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I have an important question to ask, is it possible to take the Part 2 of the CMA exam first and then the Part 1 later? I mean can I take and clear ‘Financial decision making’ first and then later take the ‘Financial planning, performance and control’ exam? Please clarify. Moreover I have heard that Part 2 is easier than Part1, is that true?
Regards
Anoop John
yup..you can write them like that…
there is no particular order.. 🙂
hi i am planning to give cma part – 2 in this coming may-jun14 window.
i want to know what should i refer to solve more question form Gleim.IMA or HOCK, so i can clear my cma in first attempt.
Thank u,
Sarika
ReplyHi Sarika,
They all have pros and cons. Here are my thoughts: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-review-course/
Regards
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks for the information this is very helpful.
I’m planning to take the exam next year.
Br,
ryan
ReplyThat’s great to know Ryan! I have answered your other questions in the respective pages. Stephanie
ReplyI just want to ask about the difficulty of the essay part of the exam?
ReplyHi nhie, most readers find them quite straightforward when compared to the multiple choice questions. I agree with them. Unless it takes the candidate a lot of time to write in English or that he/she makes a lot of grammatical mistakes, it shouldn’t be an area to worry about. Regards, Stephanie
ReplyDear stephanie,
i would like to know how much questions will be there in essay window, is there any more optionals than 2 questions.
thank you in advance
ReplyHi Jasir, there are two questions, but they can be further divided into several mini questions. This recent sharing by our blogger Vinoth may be helpful: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-essay-questions/
ReplyHi Stephanie,
My question is – What is the score/marks for the MCQ each questions?
Regards
Lancy
Hmm… I believe it isn’t a straightforward calculation. Please refer to this page for explanation of the grading system: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-exam-scoring/
ReplyHi Stephanie,
Normally to study CMA part 1 and be ready for exam, How many month i have
to make my schedule?
Hi Kareem, it depends on how many hours you can devote to the study each week, as well as whether you have existing knowledge in the exam content, but I would say about 70-80 hours for basic studying, and double that for very thorough studying. Hope it helps! Regards, Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
Do we have to save our essay answer? I just took CMA part 1 exam. Halfway through answering the essay I saved my answer, I didnt save towards the end. I’m worried my answers will not be counted.
ReplyHi Juls,
Don’t worry there is automatic saving in the system 🙂 Stephanie
Please do! This question comes up quite often so I am quite sure it is all right. Cheers, Stephanie
ReplyHI Stephanie,
Am a bit worried about the essay questions, and a little bit on the MCQ’s
will practicing on gleims software of multiple choice questions build a strong foundation to face the exams, I know passing is not guaranteed if we do practices on MCQ. but will there be a strong advantage of clearing the exams if more and more MCQ are tackled on Gleims software?
how may essay questions will be asked, is it like they would ask us 2 essay questions and we only need to answer one, can you let me know on the same. will there be options on the essay question?
My last question is, if I score maximum marks in my MCQ’s then I can just score the balance in the essay to total to 350 Points to clear CMA part 1 is this true, or is it that essay also has a percentage of passing needed?
your advise to me will be of great help
Noel
ReplyHi Noel,
If you go through the entire study course including all the online practice questions, you are in pretty good shape. it’s hard to generalize but most of my bloggers use Gleim and they seem to have pretty good pass rates. Gleim isn’t the only reason of course; they worked pretty hard.
No you don’t have a choice on the essay questions. You have to answer all of them.
From what I know, you need to pass both the multiple choice and essay questions. But almost all candidates I talked to find the essays straightforward (this includes non English-speaking candidates). If you know the materials and can write decent English (not a problem for you, judging from the above), then no need to worry about it.
The MC questions can be long and tough — so I would make sure I nail those in the practice questions. Cheers, Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I am working on the essay’s for gliem.
I was wondering if we need to memorize word for word the IMA standards details. I have the jist of each standard and can describe it well but I have not memorized word for word.
thanks
No I don’t think so Rob. As long as you can articulate that they are and what they mean, it’s good enough. Cheers, Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
The reason I asked is because when you look at the answers on the essay part, they basically quote the book word for word. If you think the idea is more important then the exact words. The concept is 100% accurate though.
These tips really works for me.
I have started writing essays in mind and small essays in paper when I get time.
And when I started writing and when I read them later, I can find my own mistakes and it really helps me to improve a lot. Thank you very much.
Hi stephinie,
I recently took my CMA part II exam but during essay session i m not sure whether i saved my answers or not.have u any idea about it?my answers are still there or gone unsaved?please reply i am much worried
ReplyHi Abdus, no worries as the answers are automatically saved. I’ve got a lot of questions on this. I am sure it’s fine 🙂 Stephanie
ReplyHi stephanie! I took my cma exam two days ago, while i was writing my last answer in the essay box, the time was up and the screen shut down on the essays and took me to the survey part,l. Am worried about the answers if they were saved or not beacuse the time was up
ReplyHi Mich, just got the exact question the other day. It is auto saved periodically and frequently, so it should be fine. No worries! Stephanie
ReplyHello All… I took recently the CMA Part 1 Exam. The essays comes with 2 business scenarios and covers 10 questions with 1-3 sub-questions each. The whole topic in Part 1 was like briefly thrown in these questions and requires calculations and on point essay writing. Now, just waiting for the result which will release after 6 weeks I guess?
ReplyHi Lance, thanks for sharing! Yes, 6 weeks 🙂 I have an estimated time table here: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-exam-results-waiting-time/
ReplyNot really… they are seen as separate qualifications. Regards, Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I appeared for the CMA Exam part II ( Yday). Cleared the MCQ section and moved on to the Essay. I had two questions:
1) Does the essay section save answers automatically ?, I think I have not saved it every time, I changed it.
2) In the MCQ , I think I just about managed to get through, My essay section was very good though. What would be my chance of clearing ?
Thanks
Salim.
Hi Salim, no worries, the system saves answers automatically. I am afraid there is no way for me to know your chance of clearing though, but I am really glad that you feel good about the essays. Just take a well-deserved break and get the results 6 weeks later. Try not to think over this too much in the meantime 🙂 Stephanie
ReplyHello ,
Same question here.If you complete your 50% MCQ and move on to essay part and essay is good.Then are the chances of passing high?
I too appeared for my part two yesterday. MCQ were tricky and time consuming so i got panic and also blank.Luckily,essay part was good.
I just want to know fair idea.
As somewhere,in blog i read that 75% for MCQ and 25% for Essay and 500 scaling.i.e 375 for MCQ and 125 for essay.If you move to essay part you manged to clear 50% i.e 250/375 is 66.67 % .
If you clear MCQ and move on to essay that means you cleared 50% i.e 250 points .And Now in order to clear you require extra 25 %.
if overall 75 % passing required or 360 out of 500 which comes to 72 %.
In that scenario, should I understand that i managed to score 250 points and additionally I will require only 110 points to get 360 score in order to pass.Or i scored in MCQ 66.67 % and now only balancing percentage require to clear??
Well,friends in order to give my review on part two.I would like to say practice lot of questions and time is a big challenge.
Also,what i noticed is that continuous doing gliem as i referred to that review system.I knew half of the questions and after doing lot practice you feel that questions are same repeatedly and you have gone through that.So next time ,when you appear you don’t read question carefully as you have gone through that and your time get saved and also in practice exam you score good above 75 %
Here,it is a big disadvantage because in exam scenario you have to read question carefully and all the facts and numbers are new which is time consuming and then select.Sums on Capital Budgeting,CVP analysis are lengthy….
Hope my efforts get well paid off and I pass with flying colors.Wish me luck)
ReplyHi Farida, wishing you the best luck on your Part 2!
On the grading system, it is more or less correct except that we cannot compute the percentage, because this assumes that each question may not carry the same point. It is not. There is an elaborate weighting mechanism based on the difficulty level, among other factors. You can get a general idea here:
https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-exam-scoring/
But I would just relax and wait until you see the score a few weeks later. In the meantime, it is great to spend some energy on preparing the next part 🙂
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I have taken my Part 2 exam in last window (June’2016). i was short by 20 marks to hit the target.
It was hard to me to accept the fact because had done quite well in exam & expecting 75%+. I have now been received my score card and i fail to meet the requirement in essay section and GOT C grade which indicate that I couldn’t meet the expectation of IMA exam.
I have one doubt here that, i haven’t click the save button. is it role of not clicking on save button??
ReplyHi Gyan, as mentioned in another reply to you, there is an autosave function but it is possible that the latest version was not saved. I believe the reason of not passing is due to other factors as well (very small factors adding together, giving you are close to the passing score). When you work on the practice questions for your next attempt, try to achieve 80%+ and make sure you rework the 20% you did wrong previously. This way, you have a bigger buffer. Best of luck!
ReplyHello. I failed twice in part CMA exam. second was quite good and attempted. I failed to score good marks in essay questions. Now I would like to know, where can I get a access to essay questions for practice?
ReplyBesides the (very) old past essay questions from IMA, you can get extra practice, such as the essay wizard from Gleim. Regards, Stephanie
ReplyHi stephanie,
I wanna appear for two parts of CMA exam at a time(day by day)by preparing for a period of 6 months. Should i take two parts or prepare for one exam,appear for it and respectively for other?much confused to start
ReplyHi Keerthan, you can do it either way, but usually it is better to do it one at a time – 3 months for each part so you can focus on getting one done first. Regards, Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I am persuading b.com (2nd year) in India . I would like to do cma usa , is it necessary to have work experience ? And what will be the difficulty level of this exam .
Regards, nithisha
ReplyHi Nithisha,
Sure, in fact students have discount to join as member and to take the exam
(more info here: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-exam-fees/)
You need experience to become a CMA, but not for taking the exam. So what people do is to take the exam first, and accumulate the necessary experience during or after the exam. Guess it would likely be after in your case, which isn’t a problem at all.
In terms of difficulty, I would say it is quite difficult in terms of how the questions are framed. They can be lengthy and complex. But as long as you understand what are being asked, it’s basically questions in accounting, internal control, strategic planning, finance etc. Not rocket science. Hope it helps! Stephanie
ReplyHello,
I’m in the early stages of trying to figure out if taking the CMA exam would be a good fit for me. My main question is about the CPE requirements and how to go about completing them each year along with the approximate cost.
Hi Anthony, generally the CPE should be less of a concern. There is a recurring cost for sure to do this, but hopefully this is very little compared to what you benefit after getting the certification. More info on the CPE here: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-cpe-requirements
ReplyHello ma’am ,
is there any specific source where should questions come from??
I’m doing my Wiley question bank , is that main sourc. of questions in IMA ?
Hi Devarsh,
I wouldn’t say it is the “main source”, but any practice questions from major review course providers can be considered good source for practice. You can learn about the pros and cons of each provider here: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-review-course/
Regards, Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I have Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Goa University and Post Graduate diploma in Financial Management is from Indira Gandhi National Open University. Both are listed on your website. Do I need to send the Original transcripts to Naces or do I sent it to IMA?
ReplyHi Judy,
If it is on the list, you don’t need to go through NACES. Can send the transcript to the IMA directly. Good luck! Stephanie
I would like to know if 2 months is sufficient to prepare for both part 1 and part 2 of us cma exam
ReplyHi Vivek,
It really depends on the number of hours you can allocate for the studying. You can estimate the timing here: https://ipassthecmaexam.com/cma-exam-study-planner/
hi, Stephanie, I took the exam of part 1 and the result arrived and unfortunately, I failed I scored 290 that means a minimum of 250 in MCQ section and have confidence that my essay section was also good but what I did was did not click on the end button during my exam in essay section which I did in MCQ section and let keep going the time until the end of the exam and after the time ended the window disappeared. So my question is whether the essay section has not graded or graded or zero or I am wrong? because my essay section I did was good in the exam and expected a score of mine was at least 70% which means 125*70% = 87.5%. Kindly answer.
ReplyHi Kamlesh,
The essay was auto saved, so I would think that section should have counted at least a bit. It isn’t a straight formula so it’s hard to tell whether you were getting at least 250 on your MC question, but you are correct that you should at least get 50% on the MCQ section of the exam.
Regards, Stephanie
ReplyGetting a 50 % on the MCQ will automatically result in a failing grade. 50 % of 375 = 188points and if one scored a 100% on the essay, one would end with 313 points.
One must score at least a 65% on the MCQ section and a 93% on the essay to achieve a passing grade of 360.
Scoring a 72% on both sections will yield a passing score of 360 Points.
I pressed the IMA to provide more detailed scoring on the exam but have been reluctant to do so.
Good luck, I failed both parts 1 and 2 and quit studying, too expensive
ReplySorry to hear this! Accounting certification examiners are usually reluctant to reveal their scoring processes. But maybe you shouldn’t give up just yet? Have you asked your job to sponsor your exam fees so that you can keep going?
ReplyThe IMA needs to be more upfront about the scoring of the essay. It should be 65% on MC before one can go on to the essay part. Anything below a 65% on the MC section = failure.
ReplyThanks for your comment! To get your voice heard, please reach out to the IMA directly as they may be open to changing this in the future.
ReplyHi Stephanie,
Just want to ask if I’m eligible in CMA having the following credentials:
• Bachelor of Science in accountancy – for 2yrs (under graduate)
• Took up Modern Accounting Course (Essentials of Accounting, Budgeting and Costing, Financial Statement Analysis , Intermediate Accounting)
• 3yrs accounts working experiences
Thanks,
Dei
Hi Dei, I believe the IMA normally requires the bachelor degree to be at least 3 years, but there could be exceptions especially that you have taken up extra accounting courses. Please contact the IMA directly for them to evaluate your situation. Best of luck! Stephanie
ReplyHi Stephanie,
I just recently took the exam. I reached the essay part but I am a bit worried because there were 11 questions and each have sub questions.
Due to time constraints, I only answered each in one sentence. I am really worried that I failed the essay part. If say I am confident that 5 out 11 were answered correctly, since it’s less than half of the total questions, did I failed already?
How do they grade the essay part? Is it based on how long your explanation for each questions?
Thank you! Hoping for your feedback.
ReplyMayi – For your understanding can you please share whether you passed the CMA Part1?
Replyhi stephen,
i just complete my part 1 exam yesterday, and iam now worry about i had’t save the essay question and it will dissappeared automatically when the times up .
ReplyHello,
I am Amit from INDIA. I have completed B.com. and I have 2 Year Experience In Accounts Profile. But I could not find USA CMA classes for Part-1.
Please help me
Thanks
