| The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the cognitive demands of the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and the Certified Management Accountant (CMA) examinations.;From the results of the analysis, the following conclusions were made: (1) The CMA examination tests at a higher cognitive level than does the CPA examination; (2) Higher cognitive skills are required to pass the CMA examination than to pass the CPA examination; (3) The recent change in the CMA examination from a five-part to a four-part test has not changed the cognitive rigor of the examination; (4) Cognitive level is affected by question format, with free-response questions testing at a higher cognitive level than multiple-choice questions; and (5) Sections of both the CPA and the CMA examinations test at different cognitive levels. For the CPA examination, the Accounting Practice and Business Law sections contain questions that are of a higher cognitive level than the Auditing and Accounting Theory sections. On the CMA examination, the Financial Accounting and Reporting section tests at a lower cognitive level than do the other three sections.;A recommendation is that the administrators of the CPA and CMA examinations establish standards, similar to those for examination content and format, relating to the cognitive level of the tests. Additionally, employers desiring accounting employees who can function at higher cognitive levels should express a preference for accountants with CMA certification. Accounting educators should strive to develop their students' cognitive skills as required by the CMA examination.;Through a series of three phases, a panel of five experts classified the questions on the December 1990 and June 1991 CMA examinations, and on each of two randomly selected CMA examinations and two randomly selected CPA examinations given between November 1987 and June 1990. Using a taxonomy presented by Benjamin S. Bloom, each question was classified into one of four cognitive levels: knowledge and comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis and evaluation. Based upon the point values of the questions, the data generated were used to test each of nine hypotheses. The Chi-square test of independence with an alpha of.05 was used. |
