Why The CMA`s Learning Outcome Statements Matter -

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There is a wide variety and volume of tasks that a Certified Management Accountant (CMA®) can be asked to complete in their day-to-day work. To ensure today’s CMAs are fully prepared for the challenge, the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (IMA®) has designed the CMA® Program curriculum to be as comprehensive as possible.

Ensuring Professional Integrity

Financial planning, analysis, control, and decision support are skills that are critical to the success of finance teams. The IMA regularly reviews the content of the CMA Exam to ensure that the 11 content domains in the CMA Exam align with the knowledge, skills, and abilities that an accountant or finance professional in business uses on the job.

To do this, the organization has used a robust outline of Learning Outcome Statements, or LOSs. These LOSs detail precise accounting concepts that competent CMAs must master and reliably demonstrate.

Avoid Wasting Study Time

Per the organization’s latest update, there are currently 650 LOSs within the CMA Program curriculum. While this may seem like a huge amount of information, like the CPA Exam, the curriculum covers the broad spectrum of management accounting but is not terribly deep on specific areas.

You won’t have to know absolutely everything to pass the CMA Exam, of course, but aligning your studying with the program curriculum and LOSs ensures you don’t waste time on concepts that aren’t heavily tested.

Part 1 Curriculum Overview

A. External Financial Reporting Decisions (15%)

B. Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (30%)

C. Performance Management (20%)

D. Cost Management (20%)

E. Internal Controls (15%)

Part 2 Curriculum Overview

A. Financial Statement Analysis (25%)

B. Corporate Finance (20%)

C. Decision Analysis (20%)

D. Risk Management (10%)

E. Investment Decisions (15%)

F. Professional Ethics (10%)

You can review all of the LOSs for current CMA Program here.

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