Unlock the New Exam with These Sample Questions

To provide candidates with a brief view of some of the types of questions on the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) exam, below are five practice questions, with correct answers and explanations for each. These questions reflect content from the new exam, offered for the first time in September 2024.

You can also check out these additional practice multiple-choice and essay questions (in PDF format) and try the interactive practice quiz, available on the IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) website, to test your skills and expertise.

CMA Exam Part 1:


1.   The production manager of the Super T-shirt Company is responsible for the activity of her department and the costs associated with production. Super T adheres to a responsibility-centered budget process, and the manager’s performance is measured by how well she performs to budget. Recently, a dark horse team won the local college basketball tournament. As a result, the sales department, which operates as a profit center, received an order for 10,000 T-shirts, but only if they could be delivered in three days. The production manager said she could meet the schedule, but only by incurring overtime pay that would cause her to be over budget for hourly wages paid. What would be the best course of action for the sales department and the production manager to undertake in this case?

  1. Accept the order and overrun the production manager’s budget.
  2. Refuse the overtime and produce only what the production department is capable of while staying within the budget.
  3. Accept the order and ignore the effect on the production department budget when conducting the performance review.
  4. Charge the overtime to the sales department’s budget.
  • Correct answer d. If the sales department operates as a profit center and accepts a rush order, it should incur the extra cost of the rush order. The overtime required should not be charged to the production department as the manager would then be inclined to reject the order as it is not beneficial to the department’s goals.

2.    In order to properly segregate duties, which role within the computer department should be responsible for reprocessing the errors detected during the processing of data?

  1. Department manager.
  2. Systems analyst.
  3. Computer programmer.
  4. Data control group.
  • Correct answer d. In order to properly segregate duties within the computer department, the responsibility to reprocess the errors detected during processing of the data should be given to the data control group and not to the department manager, who should have access to review transactions, but not process transactions; nor to the systems analyst, who should have access to view and analyze transactions, but not process transactions, and not to the computer programmer, who should have access to programs, not transactions.

CMA Exam Part 2:


3.    If a company has a current ratio of 2.1 and pays off a portion of its accounts payable with cash, the current ratio will

  1. decrease.
  2. increase.
  3. remain unchanged.
  4. move closer to the quick ratio.
  • Correct answer b. Because the payment will have a proportionally greater effect on current liabilities than on current assets, the company’s current ratio will increase.

4.    Protective clauses set forth in an indenture are known as

  1. provisions.
  2. requirements.
  3. addenda.
  4. covenants.
  • Correct answer d. Protective clauses or restrictions in bond indentures and loan agreements are known as covenants and can include items such as working capital requirements and capital expenditure limitations.

5.    Breeze Company has a contribution margin of $4,000 and fixed costs of $1,000. If the total contribution margin increases by $1,000, operating profit would

  1. decrease by $1,000.
  2. increase by more than $1,000.
  3. increase by $1,000.
  4. remain unchanged.
  • Correct answer c. Breeze’s operating profit would increase by $1,000. Operating profit equals contribution minus fixed costs. If contribution increases while fixed costs remain the same, operating profit will increase by the same amount.