About CMA Exam Academy
CMA Exam Academy is a structured CMA exam review program founded in 2014 by Nathan Liao, CMA, and headquartered in Irvine, California. Students follow a guided 16-week study plan per exam part with unlimited personalized coaching support.
Across the last four years our students have passed at an average of 92%, against a global average of 50%.
I'm Nathan Liao, and I built this program after passing the CMA exam myself in 2012. What follows is who we work with, how we run this, and what our students have actually scored.
Who CMA Exam Academy Is For
Our students are accounting and finance professionals, usually studying around a full-time job. They come to us as staff accountants and financial analysts, as senior accountants and finance managers, as controllers and CFOs. Some are two years into their career. Some are twenty.
Most are based in the United States and Canada. We've had students in 120 countries.
Nearly nine in ten have never sat the CMA exam before. If this is your first attempt, you're the normal case here, not the exception.
Titles We Coach
You Want the Plan Handed to You
You could work out what to study and in what order on your own, but that's weeks you don't have. Most of our students want the plan handed to them.
You Lost Momentum With Self-Study
Some come to us from Gleim or Wiley, after making real progress for a few weeks and then losing momentum the first time work got busy.
You Want Someone to Ask
Others are returning to studying after years away, or coming from a non-accounting background, and want someone to ask when a concept doesn't land.
Why Self-Study Stops Working
Roughly half of CMA candidates don't pass on their first attempt, and it usually has nothing to do with ability.
Every one of them learned to study inside a structure: a syllabus, deadlines, an instructor, a clear path from the first lecture to exam day. Self-study takes all of that away and asks a working professional to rebuild it from scratch, in the evenings, around a job.
In my experience most people who don't pass had the ability and no system around it. A structured program puts the system back.
Comparing options? See how CMA Exam Academy compares to other CMA review courses.
Why I Built This
When I studied for the CMA in 2012, structured review programs like this one didn't exist. Self-study was the option, so that's what I did.
I lost more time working out how to study than I spent actually studying. I rebuilt my study plan more times than I'd like to admit, and I passed both parts first time largely because I eventually got that plan right.
Afterwards I started writing a blog about what had worked. Enough people asked me to turn it into a program that I eventually did in 2014. The first cohort passed at 90%, and we've refined it every year since.
The program I built is the one I wanted in 2012.
Why We Keep the Program Small
Unlimited personalized coaching support only works at a certain size.
Every student who enrolls is someone a CMA coach has to answer, week after week, within a day. That ceiling is real, and it decides how many people we can take on at once. A bigger roster would mean slower replies and a coach who doesn't remember where you got stuck last month. At that point you're buying study materials with a help desk attached, and you can get those anywhere.
So we market widely and enroll selectively. Reaching more people is how the right ones find us.
What a Small Roster Gets You
- A reply from your own coach within 24 hours, Monday to Friday
- Unlimited questions, personalized rather than templated
- Weekly coaching calls with a coach who knows your progress
Who Coaches You
I earned my CMA in 2012, passing both parts on my first attempt with a 420 on Part 1 and a 360 on Part 2. I studied while working full time, about 20 hours a week, mostly at a Starbucks near my office after work. Before running CMA Exam Academy full time, I worked as a corporate controller.
Bhadresh has over 14 years of experience in FP&A and management accounting. He earned his CMA in 2017 and a Diploma in International Financial Reporting from ACCA in 2015.
Our Results
We publish our numbers rather than describing them.
2025 was our weakest year in four and it's on the page anyway. Most CMA course providers don't publish a pass rate at all. Check before you buy from anyone, including us.
Every figure above lives on our Quick Facts page, which we keep current.
Where to Start
Still deciding
The Quick Facts page has every number in one place, and student case studies show how it plays out.
New to the CMA entirely
How to become a CMA walks through what the certification is, what it costs, and how long it takes.
