My CMA Exam Process: Preparing to Pass Each Part of the CMA Exam

Hey guys, I’m Gildz. I’m 23 years old, and I’m from the Philippines. I currently work as an accounting associate in the shared service center of a pharmaceutical firm based in Germany. I’ll be sharing my CMA exam process with you twice a month, every Sunday.

My Background in Accounting

I earned my degree in management accounting from a state university here in the Philippines. When I was in college, my plan was to earn an accounting degree to get the local CPA license here in our country.

But unfortunately, I failed to maintain the grade required for the accounting program. So, I shifted to management accounting.

Plenty of Motivation for Pursuing the CMA

As I mentioned,  I was really eager to finish my accounting degree. And right after graduating with my management accounting degree, I wanted to earn certain credits so I could earn the local CPA license. However, my parents were having difficulty sending me to school because of financial constraints.

So, since then, I have started working as an equity research analyst. Later on, I went to a shared service center to become an accounting associate.

Back in 2017, I was struggling to choose between the CIA and the CMA since both are very popular global certifications. But when I resigned from my previous work and looked for an accounting position, I decided to take the CMA exam.

It was a wise move for me since I was already working as an accounting associate. So, securing the CMA certification will be easier for me (if I pass the exam) than earning the CIA. If I earned the CIA, I’d have to move to another field again (which would be internal auditing).

Another reason I chose the CMA program was so I could leverage my portfolio for overseas opportunities. I wanted to experience working abroad, and we all know that the CMA certification is widely recognized in different countries like the Middle East and Asian countries.

Also, I believe that taking the CMA exam will open up opportunities in the controlling department of my company.

My work as an associate in a shared service center of the company is not that complicated. My primary focus is on the accounts payable of different legal entities. So, I intend to earn the CMA certification. That way, I can explore the controlling operations of the company I work for.

Great Inspiration for the CMA Exam

When I prepared for the Part 1 exam, the success stories of the candidate bloggers on this site really inspired and motivated me. So, I also wanted to share my CMA exam process with other people.

I immediately messaged the site’s Facebook page to express my interest in blogging. I’m determined to help other readers and share best practices.

This site really helped me a lot. For example, I read the reviews of the different prep courses here. That’s why I decided to use the Gleim CMA Review System.

My CMA Exam Process

I took my CMA Part 1 exam recently. Now, I’m in agony, waiting for the CMA exam results to come this December.  Hopefully, I will share some good news with you then (fingers crossed).

However, I was not really happy with my Part 1 preparations. That is because of the different factors that I will share in the next few days.