CMA Intermediate · December 2025 · Paper 12
CMA Intermediate Management Accounting December 2025: paper analysis
Our own analysis of the official paper, as of 12 October 2026. The questions and answers belong to ICMAI; read them on ICMAI's website.
Chapter-wise marks
Where the marks were in this paper (out of 100; internal-choice alternatives not double counted).
What each question tested
In our words, by question number. Open the official paper for the full question.
| Q | Marks | Tests | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2(a) | 7 | Differences between management accounting and financial accounting | Introduction to Management Accounting |
| 2(b) | 7 | Activity cost driver rates and product cost per unit under activity based costing | Activity Based Costing |
| 3(a) | 7 | Make or buy decisions for several components under a machine-hour constraint with a costly second shift | Applications of Marginal Costing in Short Term Decision Making |
| 3(b) | 7 | Cost-plus transfer price with a target return on investment and the effect of an external market price | Transfer Pricing |
| 4(a) | 7 | Break-even number of participants where some costs are stepped by room and vehicle capacity | Marginal Costing (Management Accounting) |
| 4(b) | 7 | Evaluating a cost reduction proposal to convert scrap into usable components and estimating savings | Applications of Marginal Costing in Short Term Decision Making |
| 5(a) | 7 | Reconciling budgeted and actual profit through cost, sales price and sales volume variances | Standard Costing and Variance Analysis (Management Accounting) |
| 5(b) | 7 | Material price, mix and yield variances for a two-material mixture | Standard Costing and Variance Analysis (Management Accounting) |
| 6(a) | 7 | Flexible budget profits at higher capacity levels with changing material cost and price | Forecasting, Budgeting and Budgetary Control |
| 6(b) | 7 | Cash collection schedule from sales with credit lags and the gain from stricter credit enforcement | Forecasting, Budgeting and Budgetary Control |
| 7(a) | 7 | DuPont analysis of return on equity alongside economic value added and how they relate | Divisional Performance Measurement |
| 7(b) | 7 | Pricing a follow-on contract using an 80 percent learning curve and resulting profit or loss | Applications of Marginal Costing in Short Term Decision Making |
| 8(a) | 7 | Choosing a strategy under uncertainty using maximin, maximax, Laplace and Hurwicz criteria | Decision Theory |
| 8(b) | 7 | Characteristics of effective responsibility reporting | Responsibility Accounting |
What stood out
- Twelve of fourteen written parts were numerical; theory was limited to management versus financial accounting and responsibility reporting.
- Short-term decision making dominated with three parts (make or buy under constraint, scrap-to-component proposal, learning-curve contract pricing).
- Variance analysis took a full question again, this time pairing a profit variance reconciliation with material mix and yield variances.
- Decision theory moved into Section B with a four-criterion decision-under-uncertainty problem, adding to the two MCQs on payoffs and risk.
- The MCQ section covered every chapter, with two questions each from most chapters, mirroring the June 2026 pattern.
Practise the chapters that carried the marks
Applications of Marginal Costing in Short Term Decision Making, Standard Costing and Variance Analysis (Management Accounting), Forecasting, Budgeting and Budgetary Control: study guides and practice questions in the CMA Intermediate format.