CMA Exam Format 2026: What's on Part 1 and Part 2

The CMA exam has 2 parts

Unlike the CPA exam's 4 sections, the CMA credential is split into just 2 parts, each counted as 50% of the overall certification. That makes it one of the fastest professional accounting credentials to complete from a pure exam-count perspective.

What Part 1 and Part 2 cover

Part 1 — Financial Planning, Performance and Analytics — covers external financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting, performance management, cost management, and internal controls and technology.

Part 2 — Strategic Financial Management — covers financial statement analysis, corporate finance, decision analysis, risk management, capital investment decisions, and professional ethics.

Broadly, Part 1 is about planning and measuring performance, while Part 2 is about using that information to make strategic financial decisions.

Is there a required order?

No — candidates can sit either part first. Some prefer Part 1 first since it builds the cost and performance foundation that Part 2's strategic topics build on; others prefer to get the more conceptually dense Part 2 out of the way while course material is freshest.