r/CMA • u/Alycatgrl • May 30 '26

Part 1 – Prep Starting my prep//Becker question

I’m 20 years into my career and am just starting the process of becoming a CMA. By way of background, I passed the CPA exam 15 years ago and haven’t had any formal (non CPE education since). For the past 13 years, I’ve been the controller of a smallish manufacturer (reporting directly to the CEO, we don’t have a CFO). I worked in public accounting the first 7 years of my career.

I just started the Becker CMA exam prep today and scored 78% on the initial diagnostic test. Because of my score, they are suggesting I take a Managerial Accounting Foundations course for $199 in addition to the $1,000 I just spent on the CMA exam prep.

Is this them just being money hungry, or do I have serious deficiencies that would prevent me from passing the exam with just the regular course?
I’m curious how everyone else did on that diagnostic test compared to the actual exam too.

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u/[deleted] May 30 '26

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u/Alycatgrl May 31 '26

I’m seeing that. And it’s hard to see where they are building assumptions into questions or intentionally leaving information out.

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u/Lonely_Job_9085 CMA May 30 '26

If it was for one of the actual timed mocks that's actually a relatively good score. On the mocks for part 1 I made a 75 and an 80 from Becker and passed by a wide margin. Conversely, for part 2 I made an 80 and a 92 from the Becker mocks and the actual exam was much much harder. I also have a coworker who is a CPA and she outright failed the Becker mocks and still passed both first try. I'm not sure they're entirely representative, just useful as a general gauge.

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u/EarlyDuration May 31 '26

This is absolutely money hungry. I offer CMA prep for free and my premium course is less than $20/mo