The process of becoming a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) culminates in the moment candidates receive their examination results. This article provides a clear guide on the official timeline for score release and the precise steps for accessing scores through the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) portal. Understanding this procedure is important for quickly moving on to the next stage of certification. This involves preparing for the next exam part or fulfilling the final requirements to earn the designation, helping manage the post-exam waiting period.
CMA Score Release Schedule
The period following the exam involves a multi-step grading process for both parts of the CMA exam. Scores are typically released by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) approximately six weeks after the end of the month in which the exam was taken. This consistent timing is largely a result of the manual grading required for the essay portion, which is reviewed by professional subject matter experts.
Candidates who take their exam early in a testing window wait the same amount of time as those who test later, as the countdown begins only after the month concludes. Once the scores are officially released, the ICMA communicates the outcome through email notification. This email alerts the candidate that the score is now available and directs them to the online system.
How to Log In and View Your Official Scores
The official score report is accessed through the IMA’s secure online platform, which is the central hub for all candidate administrative tasks. Navigate to the IMA website and locate the login area for your member or candidate account. This portal is often referred to as your MyIMA account or the member dashboard.
After successfully logging in with your registered credentials, find the section that houses your personal certification and examination records. This area is usually labeled as “My Profile,” “My Dashboard,” or specifically “Exam Results.” The official score will be posted to your online transcript within this section of the portal.
The initial email notification does not contain the score itself but confirms that the result has been posted to your account. Logging into the MyIMA portal is the only way to obtain the definitive, official score and see the detailed performance report. Check your online transcript immediately upon receiving the email to view the final determination.
Decoding Your CMA Score Report
The CMA exam uses a scaled scoring system to ensure fairness across different versions of the test administered. Scores are reported on a scale ranging from 0 to 500, with a score of 360 established as the minimum required to pass either Part 1 or Part 2 of the examination. The scaled score is designed to normalize for slight variations in exam difficulty, meaning 360 represents a consistent level of proficiency, not simply a raw percentage of correct answers.
Candidates who do not achieve the passing score of 360 receive a detailed Performance Report via email from Prometric, typically sent about 14 days after the official score release. This report is a diagnostic tool that breaks down performance across the content areas of the exam. Performance in each major content domain is categorized using one of three proficiency levels: Satisfactory (S), Marginal (M), or Unsatisfactory (U).
The proficiency levels indicate where a candidate needs to focus their study efforts for a retake, showing relative strengths and weaknesses. A failing candidate should closely analyze the areas marked Marginal or Unsatisfactory, as these represent topics where the required knowledge threshold was not met.
Next Steps Based on Your Performance
For candidates who have passed an exam part, the immediate next step is to prepare for the remaining part or to finalize the requirements for the certification itself. If you have passed both parts, you must ensure that the education and experience requirements are verified and documented with the ICMA. This involves submitting official transcripts proving you hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university and validating two continuous years of professional experience in management accounting or financial management.
If the result is a non-passing score, the path forward involves re-strategizing and scheduling a retake. Candidates must wait until the next available testing window to re-register for the failed exam part, as retakes are not permitted within the same window. The retake process requires submitting a new exam registration and paying the full exam fee again, which for a professional member is currently $545 per part. Analyzing the Performance Report to identify specific weaknesses is the most productive first step before re-registering for the exam.