CEO Blog
a great conversation starts with a great topic
Entry
Hi Everyone,
Are you familiar with all of IMA's "pillars of value" - products and services to enhance your job, your career, your organization's performance?? We have talked for nearly the past month on one of our pillars, the CMA certification. The CMA is IMA's "crown jewel" and primary market differentiator so it deserves the attention especially with the first curriculum change in 6 years. But, there are many other pillars of value. Take the time to explore the website, read our award winning publications, ask questions on LinkUp IMA, call me, ... REALLY get familiar with your member benefits and pillars of value!!
I can not describe all of the pillars of value here, but just some "tidbits" for now.
In the area of education, we offer free (CPE-earning) webinars each month on relevant topics including IFRS, supply chain, leadership and more. Most other associations charge $20-$150 per CPE hour. Additionally, we have a suite of about 300 CPE titles that offers relevant, flexible and affordable means to earn your CPE credits while learning.
In the area of research, are you familiar with FAR (IMA's Foundation for Applied Research - an opportunity for academics and practitioners to engage in advancing the global profession)? SMAs (Statements on Management Accounting)? IECJ (IMA Educational Case Journal)? If you are not familiar, well, I am giving you a homework assignment to get familiar with these valuable engagement and learning opportunities!!
Did you know that IMA is a founding member of COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations), which has provided best practices guidance and research in the areas of fraud, risk management and internal controls? IMA members get COSO products at heavily discounted prices.
Our goal at IMA is to create the best member experience on the planet. We recently created a set of values ("Our Core Values") with an unwavering focus on member value and experience. IMA is making significant investments in its infrastructure ("technology enablement") to continuously improve the member experience. You should expect nothing less of us.
Have a safe and enjoyable Holiday Season from all of us at IMA!
Jeff
Comment
Not to mention the extensive networking opportunities among the local and state chapters that provide educational, employment and social opportunities to interact with peers and friends.
A couple of comments.
Since IMA is one of the founding members of COSO, why is then the testing aspect removed from the future exams?
Another comment is that the change to two exams is especially bad from teaching point. I have taught the CMA certification preparation courses, but it will be difficult when too many topics are covered by each exam.
It was a bad change when the Part 4 became a written part, now we want to have that in every part. Where is the objective testing?
Why were not the active members informed about the process of change in the testing procedure? Who were asked? I hope I am wrong when I am stating that it soulds like internal nepotism!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Thanks for the comments so far, they are much appreciated.
The chapters are a wonderful way to engage at the local level. Chapters are vitally important to IMA's strategy.
Regarding COSO, actually we have added COSO-related questions not taken away. The current 4-part exam has under 10% of its total content on risk and internal controls; the new 2-part exam has about 20% of total.
From a teaching perspective, the new 2-part may actually be "more teachable" since there is more "curriculum threading", i.e., 4 topics + ethics more naturally related to one another per each of the 2 new parts.
Regarding Multiple Choice (MC) vs. Essay, each of the 2 new parts has 100 MC and 2 Essays so there is a nice mix. As an educator myself (certified K-12, 3 years of HS teaching between AT&T and IMA, 20+ years as adjunct professor) there has been a move toward open-ended or essay questions in testing. Ability to synthesize and communicate has become important for HSPA and other standardized testing. It certainly is part of what MAs do in their everyday jobs. It can be objective with a robust grading rubric.
Regarding the curriculum change, we did conduct primary market research over a two year period - "the voice of the market" - to update the curriculum after 6 years and make it more relevant to the needs of today's CFO team while maintaining or increasing its rigor.
Happy Holidays.
Jeff
Jeff,
Thanks for the reply.
My reference for the teaching was to the teaching of different topics included in each exam. If the exams were more specific, a higher level of understanding could be tested.
With the regards to the trend in the new teaching trends. The use of more open ended questions and essays, I do agree with that, but the evaluation is subjective.
Look at what is happening with our school system, are the students English and math skills better now than they were a generation ago. No, the opposite is actually the truth.
If we want to stand out, we cannot follow the trend to lower levels of competence and actual skills levels. The testing should be more practical problem oriented, such as "what are the actual steps in a budgeting process for a manufacturing company." Instead of writing the answer as an essay, the steps should be posted in the questions and the candidate should reorganize the steps in proper sequence.
The other problem with essay questions is that they take too long time to be graded. I believe that a maximum of two weeks from the exam date should be enough for grading.
I personally thought it was a mistake to make the change six years to the testing procedure, especially by including PART 4 as essay questions and now it seams to be even worse in my opinion.
In addition, why is IMA working against the local chapters by NOT allowing the use of IMA's review material unless the teaching is conducted in conjunction with a local college or university?