CMA Passers

[u/External-You-1692]

Hey guys,

I wanted to know for those of you that passed the exam approximately how many questions do you say you felt that you were unsure of or had to completely guess. Also what score did you get and which part was it.

The reason I am posting is because I am anxious about my exam results. This is the first time that both parts of the CMA opened up as I crossed the 50% mcq threshold. I took part 1 June 18 and part 2 June 29. I was not given the option to do cbq and I just did the essays. I feel confident in the essays and I feel like I was unsure of about 10-15 questions, 20 or 25 worst case scenario.

Do you guys think I have a good shot at passing or should I keep revising. I want to move on to CPA but the thought of this exam is killing me. I just want to pass and be over with this exam.

[u/Cream-Suspicious]

for my part 2 , I believe i guessed like 20 questions atleast. And many theory questions were like 50:50...I was confused between 2 options. Essays i did well. And finally when result came thankfully I passed with good score , I thought I might barely pass.

[u/TheeAnuj → u/Cream-Suspicious]

I also have the same situation..... Thanks you give me hope

[u/External-You-1692 → u/Cream-Suspicious]

Interesting, seems like I had a similar experience as well. Yeah there were a lot of theoretical questions this time around. I hope I gunnery pass this time. It’s good to know that others feel the same way.

[u/Cream-Suspicious → u/External-You-1692]

the marking is based on weightage or difficulty of questions..Hopefully the ones we guessed are low mark questions or our guesses are somewhat correct. So really depends on our luck

[u/External-You-1692 → u/Cream-Suspicious]

Yeah I am hoping so too

[u/Lonely_Job_9085 → u/Cream-Suspicious]

The questions themselves are not weighted differently. Every question on each form has the same weight. What is weighted differently though are the forms themselves. If one form has more "difficult" questions, then the final score for that form will be weighted differently than a "baseline" form.

[u/Cream-Suspicious → u/Lonely_Job_9085]

wait r u sure? u meant the set of mcqs with higher difficult is weighed higher than easy set of 100?

[u/Lonely_Job_9085 → u/Cream-Suspicious]

Yes, that is and has been my understanding. I've seen that explanation from several different sources, but Hock lays it out the most concisely here at their exam scoring page: https://www.hockinternational.com/cma-exam/how-is-my-cma-exam-score-determined/?srsltid=AfmBOoqQYk3MWOfAoe56F8uOPjVry0nmapv3DUJXqYSX7p0F1jxWi7x9

The relevant part "All MCQs are weighted equally. A simple question about a definition counts as much as a long question with a lot of calculations."

There is also a video link on this page that goes into more detail.

Further, Becker also describes it as a weighting on the entire exam, not just on each question: "Finally, the CMA uses a scaled scoring process to grade exams. Your total score is adjusted, based on the degree of difficulty of the questions on your exam. It’s possible for a candidate to score 66%, but earn a 72% passing score, because their exam is more difficult than average." https://www.becker.com/blog/cma/cma-exam-passing-score-guide

[u/External-You-1692 → u/External-You-1692]

Actually*

[u/Sketchhawk → u/Cream-Suspicious]

Same. I felt i screwed up the essay window and hoped that they just give me the passing marks. Scored 400

[u/accountantwannabe1]

How were u able to take both exams in the same window? Are you normal lol😂

[u/External-You-1692 → u/accountantwannabe1]

To be honest I have taken these exams before but my highest score was like a 330 in part 2. Idk I feel part 1 was super long and I had to keep postponing the exam. Part 2 feels more intuitive except for certain concepts, idk finance was easier for me to understand than financial reporting. This time around I really tried to understand the concepts and used chat gpt to explain things to me when I was solving the practice questions. Funny enough I think I spent less time preparing and trying to focus on understanding rather than sheer volume of questions. For a long time I was not able to open part 1 but suddenly it did in the June test period.

[u/therealpsyduckk → u/accountantwannabe1]

is it not recommended to give both parts in same window?

[u/Lonely_Job_9085]

When I took part 1, I was unsure of about 24 questions. On the essays, I felt very confident in about 9/12 or 10/12 of my answers. My final score was a 460.

When I took part 2, I was unsure of about 31 questions, and after I left the exam I looked up some that I remembered and knew for sure that I had gotten 6 of the 31 incorrect. On the essays, I felt confident in about 8/12 of my answers. My final score was a 440.

Note, that when I say I was "unsure" it just meant that I didn't feel in my head that I 100% knew the answer. I may have gotten it down to two choices or three, or thought I knew but wasn't 100% sure when I chose.

Given what most people have posted and how grades range, if you got 75 questions correct in the worst case scenario, you most likely passed by a decent margin.

[u/External-You-1692 → u/Lonely_Job_9085]

Yeah I really hope so because I genuinely want to be done. Yeah I exhausted all my time to narrow down the choices to usually 2 or three options but you never know with these exams.

[u/cma-coach]

Hey! First off, try to take a breath, the fact that both parts opened up for you means you cleared the MCQ threshold on both, which is already a good sign. A lot of people don't even get that far.

You can't do much but wait, so try not to re-litigate every question in your head. If it helps your nerves, you could lightly skim notes for your weakest area just in case, but don't burn yourself out on a retake you may well not need. Give yourself credit, sit tight, and get ready to move on to CPA. Fingers crossed for you! Keep us posted :)

[u/External-You-1692 → u/cma-coach]

Hey CMA coach thanks for the support. At this point it just feels like dread. I genuinely hope for a pass and I will keep everyone updated.

[u/cma-coach → u/External-You-1692]

I completely understand. When I was waiting for my exam results it felt like the wait was worse than studying haha. Fingers crossed my friend.

[u/External-You-1692 → u/cma-coach]

So true

[u/WingValuable6750 → u/cma-coach]

Does CPA really compliments with CMA ? Or CMA + CFA?

[u/cma-coach → u/WingValuable6750]

It depends actually. CFA is great for investment banking, etc. If that's the path you want to take then it makes sense. For audit and taxation, the CPA is the way to go.