What Is the Best CMA Review Course?
Choosing the right CMA review course for you is one of the most important decisions you will make on the journey to becoming a CMA. Finding the package that meets your study needs can reduce your exam-related stress, save you hours of study time, save you money—and—most importantly, boost your chances of passing the CMA exam on the first try. Read through the comparison below to select your CMA review solution.
What Makes the Best CMA Review Course?
Your CMA review course should be comprehensive enough that you are set up for success on exam day. Be careful when exploring your options—some providers charge a premium for insufficient or overwhelming course materials that don’t deliver the results you need.
The UWorld Accounting team cares deeply about your CMA journey and is committed to helping you reach the finish line. As an IMA Strategic Partner, our mission is to bring you engaging and innovative learning solutions to support you through the marathon of exam prep.
UWorld vs. Becker vs. Surgent vs. Gleim
| High-Quality CMA Review Programs Include |
Becker |
Surgent |
Gleim |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
6,000+ Exam-Level Practice QuestionsChallenging CMA practice featuring detailed answer explanations–including real retired ICMA questions |
||||
Video LecturesShort, easily-digestible videos led by CMA subject matter experts who talk you through the material you’re most likely to encounter on the exam |
||||
11th Hour Final Review CourseBonus video lectures designed to reinforce the most critical CMA topics in your final study sessions |
||||
Instruction That Makes a DifferenceTeam of dynamic UWorld instructors with decades of university teaching and practical industry experience, including Monte Swain, CMA, CPA, CGMA, PhD |
||||
Boot Camps (Live Virtual Classes)Virtual classroom series with live, online instruction and support |
||||
Print and Digital Study GuidesUWorld’s study guides break down tough topics using easy-to-understand language and visuals |
||||
Expert ReadyDecks - Digital FlashcardsPre-made digital flashcards written and reviewed by UWorld’s team of CMA experts |
500+ |
700+ |
750+ |
|
Flashcard Builder and Digital NotebookCreate your own flashcards and personalized notes directly within your course for the ultimate customizable learning experience |
||||
Mobile AppFully-featured mobile app for studying your CMA Review materials on the go |
||||
Unlimited Access Until You PassUnlimited access until you pass with StudyPass™ |
||||
Fair and Transparent PricingAffordable payment options for today’s candidate |
Pro $2,199 | Ultimate $1,299 | Premium $1,799 | Elite Unlimited $1,499 |
Real Students Compare UWorld Vs. Other CMA Review Courses
"The content found in the UWorld CMA Review Course is both comprehensive and precise. The Online Test Bank gives you the required confidence before appearing for the exams! I referred to UWorld for my CMA exam prep and cleared both the parts on the 1st attempt." — Dhaval K..
Comprehensive Practice Questions
Quality & Quantity In One Package
What is the best way to pass the CMA exam? The short answer is to practice with challenging multiple-choice and essay questions.
UWorld provides comprehensive lectures and streamlined study guides to CMA candidates, but these tools alone aren't enough to pass the exam on the first attempt. Students typically retain only about 30% of the information required with these methods. How can you understand and remember everything you need to know to do your best on exam day?
To maximize the impact of UWorld’s CMA Review Course, our “learn by doing” or “active learning” methodology helps candidates like you retain 70% or more of the information needed to pass both parts of the CMA exam. How do our materials make a difference? By focusing on both quality and quantity when it comes to practice.
- Quantity of Questions: UWorld offers the most CMA practice questions on the market, and we believe practice is your key to passing the exam on the first try. With over 6,000 questions in your QBank, you’ll have more than enough to get comfortable with even the toughest concepts you’ll encounter on exam day.
- Quality of Questions: We believe this is the most critical aspect of the best CMA courses. If you do not understand the why behind your correct or incorrect answers, you could practice 10,000 questions and still not pass the CMA exam.
Difficulty At or Above Exam Level
Our CMA practice questions are carefully crafted to accurately represent the level of difficulty, content coverage, and question styles found on the actual CMA exam. Our questions are designed to test your understanding of the concepts and your ability to identify and avoid common pitfalls. By practicing with our meticulously-developed CMA question bank, you'll be better prepared to navigate the tricky questions and distractors on the real exam.
Up-to-Date Content
CMA exam content is updated regularly to reflect the latest developments and best practices in the field of management accounting. Maintaining a question bank that accurately represents the current exam content requires a significant investment of time and resources. At UWorld, we prioritize quality over quantity, ensuring that our CMA questions are crafted to align with the most recent exam blueprint and content specifications.
The true value of a CMA Review program lies in the quality, relevance, and accuracy of its practice questions. Our team of CMA experts dedicates their time to developing high-quality questions that not only test your knowledge, but also challenge your critical thinking and problem-solving abilities—preparing you for the rigors of the actual CMA exam.
Market-Leading Answer Explanations
UWorld’s questions are paired with in-depth yet concise answer explanations that include breakdowns of why each answer option is correct or incorrect and "Key Takeaways" summaries of essential concepts. They ensure that the what, why, and how behind each question is directly aligned with something you will need to know on the CMA exam.
Our answer explanations provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the underlying concepts, not just the specific question at hand. We enhance your learning experience by breaking down complex topics into digestible components.
UWorld
Other Providers
Instruction That Makes a Difference
Our CMA instructors, authors, and subject matter experts share an extensive background in accounting, experience teaching accredited university classes, and a passion for helping candidates like you advance their careers.
Monte Swain (Ph.D., CPA, CMA, CGMA), Kip Holderness (Ph.D., CPA, CMA, CFE), Kari Olsen (Ph.D., CPA, CMA), Cassy Budd (MAcc, B.S.), and the rest of us are excited to guide you to success on CMA exam day!
Video Lecture Format
Instructors from other review courses merely read the study materials aloud while directing what to circle, highlight, and take notes on. As one frustrated student shared with us, "When you highlight everything, you highlight nothing." This lecture style is ineffective and leaves CMA candidates without the critical context and in-depth knowledge required to master the exam material.
At UWorld, we understand that rote memorization and passive learning are inadequate for a challenging professional exam like the CMA. Our approach goes beyond simply regurgitating content; we emphasize active learning and skill development. Our CMA instructors provide insightful explanations, real-world examples, and practical applications to help you truly comprehend the concepts behind each topic.
11th Hour Final Review Course
As you approach your final two weeks of preparation for the CMA exam, you need a resource that distills everything you’ve learned into an approachable, refresher-style cram course.
The 11th Hour Final Review Course offers concise, final review lectures covering the most important topics you’ll see on exam day. Our lead 11th Hour instructor is Dr. Steve Smith, CMA, a professor at Brigham Young University with decades of CMA teaching experience.
Boot Camps (Live Virtual Classes)
CMA Boot Camps are your opportunity to hear your peers’ common struggles, discover more effective ways to tackle problems, get moral support from your instructors, and boost your understanding of complicated topics in an online classroom environment. Created for candidates who are well-immersed in their prep, this live class experience dives into the details rather than general overviews of exam topics.
Streamlined Textbooks
The CMA exam focuses on high-frequency management accounting topics, while a small portion tests new or experimental concepts. The exam aligns with the CMA content specification outline provided by IMA. The best CMA review course will extensively cover the relevant content specification outline material, allowing you to concentrate on the most frequently tested areas. Why does this matter? Because attempting to learn everything, including information that might not be tested, is exhausting and ineffective.
UWorld CMA study materials map directly to the CMA exam. They are structured to provide you with precisely what you need to pass the exam without excessive or unnecessary information. Our study guides work in tandem with our video lectures and question banks, facilitating a streamlined learning experience.
Other providers do not seem to give the same level of attention to detail when preparing their study materials. Even some of the leading providers include extraneous content that has either never been tested, tested minimally, or carried over from outdated exams, likely to inflate their question count.
Additional Study Guide Tools and Features
Our eBook study guides offer flexibility and customization for your learning experience. While other providers force users to watch lectures before proceeding to the next study guide page, you can navigate freely within your UWorld eBook and your course.
UWorld eBook Study Guide Tools Include:
- Intuitive keyword or topic searching
- Practice questions displayed side-by-side with your chapter, encouraging you to learn by doing
- Highlighting and saving capability for later review
- Digital flashcard builder and My Notebook
Technology and the UWorld Difference
UWorld has 100+ world-class software engineers whose focus is supporting our digital learning platform. Our team is dedicated to building a modern online learning environment that emphasizes customization and each candidate’s unique study needs.
The Active Learning Approach
Our accounting certification exam candidates succeed because they learn by doing. Whether you are creating digital flashcards while reviewing a lecture, building custom practice tests, or reading your study guide side-by-side with your online notebook, your materials help you remember core concepts, connect them to real-world needs or scenarios, and apply them with challenging, exam-level practice.
Tracking Your Performance
To feel confident on exam day, you need a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses within each part of the CMA exam curriculum. That’s why UWorld’s platform includes easy-to-read, personalized data that is always current, including correctly vs. incorrectly answered questions, used vs. unused QBank material, scored vs. maximum points, and more. These tools give you the power to quickly identify your areas for improvement at a glance—so you can spend most of your time studying what matters.
The Power of Spaced Repetition
Synthesize difficult accounting topics with spaced-repetition—the proven study method that shows learners difficult information more often until they master it, then decreases frequency to challenge the brain to build long-term retention.
Our Expert ReadyDecks and customizable flashcard builder help you put spaced-repetition into practice—right up to exam day.
Flashcards
Most review courses include pre-built flashcards, but you may already know much of the content included! Passive flashcard review isn’t productive.
That’s why we enable candidates to create customized flashcards from our materials—encouraging customization and active learning. Building your own flashcards gets you interacting with the material more deeply than pre-made cards, supporting long-term learning and memory that will serve you on exam day.
My Notebook
My Notebook, a fully-configurable digital notebook, is designed to help you engage directly with your CMA prep content and capture your questions, thoughts, and notes mid-lesson. Drag and drop content from lessons, your QBank, or study guide into your notebook for later review.
Industry-Leading Mobile App
Our mobile app is your all-access pass to our signature technology, downloadable offline lectures, multiple-choice questions, and more. The app seamlessly syncs with the desktop version of your course, allowing you to easily continue your studies from one device to the next.
Superior Support
The CMA exam is challenging, and you'll likely need support along your journey. With most CMA review courses, customer support teams are difficult to reach. At UWorld, everything we do is to help you pass, including providing exceptional customer support throughout your studies.
We are just a click or phone call away. A friendly team of Customer Support Staff is available to answer any questions you have—from technical support to CMA exam guidance and more.
Pricing, Access, and Expiration
Affordability and flexibility are important tenets of UWorld’s product philosophy. Since we also serve thousands of candidates preparing for other high-stakes exams, including medical, nursing, finance, and college prep, we save on costs related to technology, customer care, and editorial teams. This helps us bring better material to you at a lower price.
We also offer multiple discounted options for candidates enrolling through firm and university partnerships.
Need to break down your payment over 3, 6, or 12 months? No problem—we offer fuss-free and transparent financing with Affirm.
Conclusion
When it comes to preparing for the CMA exam, it is important to consider:
- Quality and relevance of practice questions
- Style and engagement level of the lectures
- Platform usability
- Instructor approach and reputation
- Cost and access period
UWorld Accounting team members are ready to help you succeed. With in-house instructors who have a shared passion for management accountancy, partnerships with firms and training providers around the globe, content experts dedicated to keeping courses up-to-date, and proven learning technology, you will have the support and the material that will ensure you reach your goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
UWorld CMA Review is an excellent solution for international candidates of the CMA exam. We partner with training providers, universities, and firms all over the world to deliver premium CMA prep courseware. Whether you are studying in live classes that use UWorld CMA material or are studying on your own, you will prepare with confidence.
UWorld CMA is the best CMA Review Course for full-time working professionals. Our innovative learning technology and QBank empower you to tailor your CMA exam prep efficiently, maximizing your chances of success while respecting your time constraints as you work.
Yes, you can try the UWorld CMA Review Course for 7 days before purchasing. Sign up here.