Understanding and Interpreting Your CMA Exam Results

CMA Exam Scoring Guide: CMA Scores and Grading System

Before taking the CMA exam, you should understand how the CMA exam is graded and how your score is calculated. The CMA exam is administered in two parts that you must pass separately. According to IMA, the CMA exam pass rate averages 50% for both Parts 1 and 2. These numbers are higher than in past years

CMA Exam Scores and Exam Structure

The CMA exam is actually a two-part test:

CMA Part 1: Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics
CMA Part 2: Strategic Financial Management

The CMA exam is divided into two sections. The first section contains the Multiple-Choice Questions, popularly known as MCQs, which contains 100 such questions. Candidates are given three hours to answer these MCQs. Each part consists of 100 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and two essays. Within each exam part, 75% of your score comes from the MCQs and 25% from the essays.

On test day, you tackle the MCQs first. If you answer at least 50% of the MCQs correctly, you can move on to the essays. On the other hand, if you incorrectly answer 49% or fewer MCQs, you cannot attempt the essays and will automatically receive a failing CMA You are allowed 3 hours for the MCQs and 1 hour for the essay question. If you manage to finish early in the MCQ section, then you can use the extra remaining time on the essays. Once you confirm that the MCQ section is completed, you cannot go back and make changes.

Duration No. of Questions Avg Time per Question
Multiple Choice 3 hours 100 1.8 minutes
Essay 1 hour 2 30 minutes

What is a CMA Passing Score? How Scores are Calculated

The CMA exam passing score is 360. The scores are on a scale of 0 to 500, with 500 constituting a perfect score. Scores are scaled to account for different versions of the test having different questions, which could vary in their difficulty.

Because of the scaled system, don’t assume that a 360 means that you answered 72% of the questions just because 360/500 = 72. In other words, if you get a 400, it doesn’t mean that you got 80% (400/500) correct, either.

This is the reason candidates may encounter confusion regarding the non-opening of the essay window despite achieving a score of 300 or higher score.

Since all the candidates are given different “forms” of the exam, it is mandatory for them to score passing marks for each form. This balances out the overall relative difficulty of the questions in each form.

IMA actually uses several different versions of the CMA exam each year to discourage cheating. Although the IMA tries to keep the difficulty level the same between the exam versions, some minor differences are possible. For example, the passing score could be 70% for a candidate but 65% for another.
 
As a result of the variations in exam versions, CMA exam scoring uses a scaled system. Basically, the IMA takes your raw score (the number of correctly answered MCQs and essays) and converts it to a uniform scaled score between 0 and 500. Furthermore, the passing score for the CMA exam is 360.Each question on the CMA exam is equally weighted, unlike other exam, which has adaptive questions based on your performance. Besides, since each MCQ on the CMA exam has the same weight, “easy” questions count toward your score the same as “hard” ones.
 ‎
‎Although each CMA exam part has 100 multiple-choice questions, only 90 are graded and included in your score. The other 10 questions are being tested for future exams. But don’t try to guess which MCQs are the test ones and skip them. Instead, the best way to get a high CMA score to pass is to answer each and every MCQ.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
IMA relies on both computer algorithms and human graders to determine your CMA score. First, your MCQ answers are analyzed by a computer, and your raw MCQ score is calculated. Then, specially trained graders review your essays. All essays are graded simultaneously to ensure fairness and consistency in the CMA test scores. What’s more, the graders first examine a selection of sample essay responses to make sure they have accounted for all possible solutions. In fact, they even re-examine essays on the pass border to make sure candidates receive the correct CMA score.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
Don’t worry too much about how difficult your version of the exam will be and don’t stress out if it seems like you got a tough draw. You can’t control this aspect, and the scaled scoring negates the variance in degree of difficulty. The purpose of the CMA exam is to ensure anyone who passes can perform the duties of a CMA. If you’re able to earn a score of 360 or higher, you’ve shown you have the knowledge required.

About the Author

Muhammed Musthafa CMA,CSCA

Secretary of IMA Kochi Chapter 

Follow me on Linkedin , Instagram

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎