CMA Exam Changes

The ICMA is making major changes to the CMA exam that will appear on the CMA exam beginning in January 2020. To summarize:

Changes to Part 1

NEW CONTENT: Technology and Analytics, Integrated Reporting
DELETED CONTENT: Internal Auditing

These are arguably more significant, because Part 1 will include an entirely new section of coverage, namely Domain F: Technology and Analytics. This domain was not previously covered in the exam, but now amounts to 15% of exam coverage (52 LOSs). Some other domains’ coverage was reduced in order to make room for this new inclusion. Domain B: Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting has been reduced by 10% (to 20% coverage), and Domain D: Cost Management has been reduced by 5% (to 15% coverage).

Based on the changes made to Part 1 of the exam, there are a few key takeaways. It is clear that the ICMA still feels that it is important for CMAs to have knowledge of Internal Controls. However, CMAs should play less of a role in internal auditing and be more involved in managing controls. The reduction of coverage in Cost Management (Domain D) and Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (Domain B) emphasizes the significance of Analytics skills as a knowledge area that will define the CMA’s role more specifically as a data reporter and critical decision maker.

2020 CMA Exam Part 1 Coverage Breakdown

Changes to Part 2

NEW CONTENT: Business Ethics, Sustainability and Social Responsibility
DELETED CONTENT: Bankruptcy, Tax Implications of Transfer Pricing

These will involve some shifts in coverage, as well as the addition of some new LOSs. Domain A: Financial Statement Analysis and Domain E: Investment Decisions will both see coverage reduced by 5%, while Domain C: Decision Analysis and Domain F: Professional Ethics will both see coverage increases of 5%. Domain F’s coverage increase is due, in part, to the inclusion of new LOSs on “groupthink”, “diversity of thought”, “ethical leadership and traits of ethical leaders”, and “facilitating payments”.

Given the increase in coverage of Professional Ethics, we can see that the ICMA is placing more value on workplace ethics, including the “tone at the top.” Additionally, the title change to Part 2 of the exam emphasizes the CMA’s evolving role as an important strategic asset to a company/organization rather than someone who simply does calculations and reporting.

2020 CMA Exam Part 2 Coverage Breakdown

The CMA exam is meant to reflect the current role of management accounting across industries, and as that role changes, the exam is updated to keep pace. The IMA conducts studies on the role of the CMA in the accounting industry and workplace, and surveys CFOs, controllers, and other professionals about the knowledge and skills a CMA needs to be effective and successful.

As the accounting industry evolves, and faces more technological changes, it is essential for a CMA’s skill set to evolve alongside the adaptation of new, more sophisticated software and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Robotic process automation (RPA) is changing the accounting industry just as it has impacted many others. Many accounting skills and duties, especially those of the bookkeeping variety, are being streamlined and automated by accounting software, in order to allow businesses to perform a number of daily processes much more quickly and with greater accuracy.

Human accounting is unlikely to disappear due to RPA, but going forward, CMAs will be expected to be much more highly effective and reliable analyzers of data. They need to be able to make critical decisions based on valuable numeric insights which cannot be left to computerized, automated processes alone. Therefore, new content being tested on the CMA exam, beginning in 2020, will better reflect what skills CMAs use on a day-to-day basis, including Data Analytics.

Changes to the 2019 Prometric Testing Interface

The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) announced that the CMA exam will have a new look beginning January 1, 2019. Candidates taking either part of the exam on or after January 1, 2019, will see these interface enhancements.

These changes are being implemented at all Prometric Testing Centers around the world. These are just visual updates designed to enrich the testing experience. The ICMA is not making any modifications to the format of the exam or the Content Specification Outlines/Learning Outcome Statements.

Click here for a preview of the design and functionality of the new interface.

Understanding how to use the CMA exam software is essential to the smoothest, most comfortable exam-day experience, and we cover all these changes here.

Roughly every five-to-seven years the IMA conducts the studies which result in exam changes at a later date. Most years there are no changes, some years there are small changes, and sometimes there are significant changes, depending upon the results of these studies and surveys. In 2015, for example, the IMA made changes to the CMA exam which resulted in about a 10% overall change to exam content. These changes primarily affected Part 1 of the exam, and involved the addition of materials related to the topic of “financial accounting and strategic planning”.

In general, most changes to the CMA exam concern the addition of new topics (or LOSs), the exclusion of old or existing topics (or LOSs), or revisions to existing sections or content, which may involve placing greater or lesser emphasis on certain topics or sections, affecting what portion of the exam tests on those topics/sections.

The IMA has also been known to make changes to the exam format itself, and over time (1997-present) it has most notably reduced the number of parts the exam is broken into, as well as the duration of the exam itself. Further, the exam has evolved to include essays on all parts of the exam, as more and more value has been placed on accountants’ written communication skills.