Section B - Performance Management CMA Part 1 Section B - Performance Management Performance Management represents 25% of the CMA Part 1 exam. Part 1 is a four hour exam that will contain 100 multiple-choice questions and 2 essay questions. Topics within an examination part and the subject areas within topics may be combined in individual questions. Therefore, we cannot predict how many multiple choice questions you may get from this section, nor can we predict whether you will get any essay questions from this section. The best approach to preparing for this exam is to know and understand the concepts well and be ready for anything. Mathematically, the majority of the questions will come from variance analysis and performance measurement parts of this section. A number of variances are covered, and you need to know not only how to calculate them, but also what they mean and who can affect them. While the variance topic may seem large and overwhelming at first, when it is broken down into its individual elements it will become easier. The performance measurement portions focus on a few performance measures, specifically Return on Investment (ROI) and Residual Income (RI). For these measurements you need to know what they are, how they are calculated and how they are used. You also need to be able to identify the weaknesses that are inherent in each one. In addition to these topics, there are a few other larger topics in this section. Responsibility accounting is the breaking down of costs into those costs that can be controlled by the manager and those that cannot be controlled by the manager. There are a number of different cost classifications and allocation methods within this section that you need to be aware of. Transfer pricing is a topic that you need to know from both a theoretical standpoint and a numerical one as well. The questions may require you to understand the issues that company faces in establishing the transfer price as well as being able to calculate an acceptable transfer price under certain situations. The final topic covered in this Section is performance feedback, and more specifically the balanced scorecard. You need to know conceptually what the balanced scorecard is and how it works as well as be familiar with its application.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 10:01:08 +0000
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