CMA (AAMA) Certification Examination

Content is drawn from the whole scope of medical assisting rather than one specialty: general areas such as medical terminology, anatomy, communication, and law and ethics; administrative areas such as scheduling, records, and insurance and coding fundamentals; and clinical areas such as asepsis, vital signs, pharmacology, medication administration, and specimen collection and testing.

The AAMA lists both test center and remote proctoring options, with PSI handling delivery. Which option you are approved for, and the rules for each, appear in your scheduling and authorization materials, so read those closely - remote proctoring in particular carries environment and technology requirements you must satisfy before test day.

The AAMA does not publish a difficulty rating or pass rate on the pages summarized here, so treat any specific figure you hear as unverified. The realistic challenge is breadth: the exam spans administrative, clinical, and general competencies, so candidates who only review clinical skills tend to feel least prepared on the administrative and reimbursement content.

Retake rules, waiting periods, and any additional fees are set by the AAMA and are not stated in the source material used for this page. Do not rely on secondhand descriptions of the policy. Log into your AAMA account or contact the AAMA directly to confirm the current retake process before you assume you can simply reschedule.

No official study timeline is published, so build one around your own gaps rather than a fixed rule. A practical approach is to take a full-length practice set early, score yourself by content area, and then weight your remaining weeks toward the two or three areas where you scored lowest, keeping shorter review cycles for strong areas.

Start with medical terminology, anatomy, and basic pharmacology, because almost every other topic assumes that vocabulary. Then move to clinical skills and infection control, and finish with administrative, insurance, and legal content - the material working medical assistants most often neglect because it is not part of their daily routine.

Recurring problems include memorizing isolated facts instead of applying them to scenarios, skipping administrative and reimbursement content, guessing on order-of-draw or asepsis questions instead of learning the underlying principle, and running out of stamina because they never practiced under timed conditions. Practicing full sections with a timer addresses several of these at once.

Yes - the AAMA maintains a recertification pathway, and continuing education units are part of maintaining the credential; the AAMA's e-Learning Center and conferences are listed sources of CEUs. The specific recertification interval, CEU totals, and deadlines are set by the AAMA, so confirm the current requirements in your account rather than from memory.

No. The AAMA lists Assessment-Based Recognition in Order Entry (ABR-OE) as a separate offering, distinct from the CMA (AAMA) certification. ABR-OE recognizes competence in a narrower task area, while the CMA (AAMA) credential covers the broader medical assisting scope. Check the AAMA site for which eligibility route fits your education and goals.