US CMA Exam Part 1 at a Glance

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The US CMA Part 1 is also known as “Financial Planning, Performance, and Analytics”. It deals with core accounting concepts, financial reporting, budgeting, cost control, internal controls, and data analytics.

Exam Structure

• Number of Questions — 100 MCQs + 2 essay questions
• Time: 4H (MCQ: 3H, essays: 1H)
• Passing Score: 360 out of 500
• Exam Windows: January-February, May-June, September-October

Candidates are required to give correct answers for at least 50% MCQs for qualifying for the essay part. MCQs cover 75% while essay questions cover 25% of the total score.

Syllabus Breakdown

The syllabus for Part 1 US CMA falls under the below mentioned 6 domains and corresponding weightage in the exam:

Now, Let’s discuss the sections one by one

1. External Financial Reporting Decisions (15%)

Fundamental financial accounting and reporting concepts under US GAAP / IFRS are covered in this section.

Key topics include:

• The Income Statement, The Statement of Financial Position, The Statement of Cash Flow
• Revenue recognition
• Resulted in a lower transfer to equity reserves due to property & equipment and intangible asset impairment
• Liabilities and equity
• Leases and investment accounting

2. Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (20%)

The comprehension of budgeting and forecasting techniques that are important for financial planning is examined in this section.

Key topics include:

• Budget Types (operational, capital, financial)
• Budgeting models (incremental, zero-based, activity-based)
• Predictive techniques (qualitative and quantitative)
• Flexible budgeting and variance analysis

3. Performance Management (20%)

Performance & Analytics domain focuses on measuring and analyzing performance to ensure business objectives are met.

Key topics include:

• Keep Reading: Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Balanced scorecard
• Variance analysis (price, volume, mix, yield)
• Analysis of profitability (gross margin, contribution margin)

4. Cost Management (15%)

Cost management improves decision-making and efficiency.

Key topics include:

• Methods of costing (job order, process, activity-based costing)
• Fixed, variable, mixed costs (cost behaviour)
• Cost volume profit (CVP) analysis
• Life-cycle costing and target costing