AAMA CMA Pass Rate: What the 69% Figure Actually Counts

AAMA reports a 69% pass rate for first-time CMA (AAMA) exam administrations from July 2024 through April 2025. That is the window currently shown on its certification page—not a 2026 cohort or an all-attempt pass rate. AAMA, “Exam Statistics.”

AAMA's published exam statistics

Sources: AAMA's certification statistics for July 2024–April 2025; 2024 AAMA House of Delegates packet, printed p. 136 / PDF p. 137 for the 2023 figures.

These are different populations, not an annual trend. The current page counts administrations; the historical table calls its population “examinees.” Its label “Initial” does not establish a first-attempt-only group. Recertification means renewing a credential, not necessarily returning after an initial failure.

By Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team · Statistics last verified: September 9, 2026

Everything below explains what these figures cover, why the other numbers you have seen look different, and what to do with any of it.

What AAMA's 69% actually counts

It counts administrations, not people. One candidate who tests twice during that window appears twice in the total of 4,171. The 69% applies only to the 2,680 sittings that were somebody's first attempt.

It covers ten months, from July 2024 through April 2025. Not a calendar year, not the current testing year.

The published rate is not broken out by eligibility route. AAMA lets people qualify as students or graduates of CAAHEP- or ABHES-accredited programs, as previously certified CMAs (AAMA) recertifying by exam, as medical assisting educators with at least 1,000 qualifying hours, or through the Alternative Pathway (AAMA, Eligibility). Those are current eligibility routes, not a breakdown of who was included in this historical first-time group.

Two things follow directly from AAMA's own numbers.

Why there is no exact failure count here. AAMA publishes 69% as a whole number, without the underlying pass count or a stated rounding method in that block. It does not support an exact failure count—or a precise failure-count range. Anyone quoting an exact count of failures from that percentage has read more precision into it than it contains.

And here is the distinction that matters. Those 1,491 non-first-time administrations cannot all be labeled failed candidates coming back. The same exam is also used for recertification, and the current statistics do not separate the reasons for non-first-time administrations. You cannot calculate, from the July 2024–April 2025 block:

• a pass rate for retakes after an initial failure
• a recertification pass rate
• an overall or all-attempt pass rate
• an "eventually passed" rate for people who failed once

AAMA does publish historical recertification and overall rates, as the 2023 rows above show. They answer a different question; they do not fill in the missing rates for July 2024–April 2025.

A pass rate is not a passing score

The difference matters when you are planning study time.

You pass the CMA (AAMA) exam with a scaled score of at least 405 on a 200 to 800 scale. AAMA's Certifying Board sets that standard through a standard-setting study and can change it. The scale is fixed on a reference group made up of candidates who graduated from CAAHEP-accredited programs and took the exam under standard conditions for the first time (AAMA, Certification, "How is the exam scored?").

So 405 is not "405 out of 800 equals 51%," and 69% is not "you need 69% correct." One is a criterion your score is measured against. The other is the share of a group that cleared it. Neither number tells you how many questions you must answer correctly on your exam form.

The practical consequence: the exam is not curved against the people sitting with you. The candidates who did not pass in that window did not fail because someone else passed. A pass rate describes a group after the fact. It is not a probability attached to you.

Why you are seeing different CMA pass rates

Different sources, windows, and denominators can produce different percentages. A figure can also be repeated without its original scope. Here is what the linked pages said when we checked on September 9, 2026.

Four questions that settle almost any pass-rate claim:

1. Who published it? The certifying body, the school, or a company selling study material.
2. What window does it cover? Stated dates, or just a year in a headline.
3. What is the denominator? First attempts, all attempts, one school's graduates, or unstated.
4. Can you open the source? Not a citation pointing at another citation. The actual page or document.

A claim that fails question 3 is not a comparable pass rate yet. It is a percentage without a defined group.

Why your school's pass rate is a different statistic

If your program is accredited by CAAHEP, an "exam passage rate" reported through the Medical Assisting Education Review Board (MAERB) is not necessarily a CMA (AAMA)-only or first-attempt rate. It is an accreditation outcome with its own rules, and both numbers can be completely true at the same time.

MAERB requires programs to publish at least one reviewed outcome: retention, job placement, or exam passage. It does not require every program to publish exam passage specifically. The chosen outcome is normally a five-year average; initial-accreditation programs publish a cumulative average. MAERB Policy 210, p. 36.

Sources: AAMA, Certification; MAERB Policies 205 and 210, pp. 32 and 36; Fall 2026 ARF Instructions, printed pp. 12–13 / PDF pp. 13–14. “ARF” means Annual Report Form. A program's separate CMA-only or first-attempt statistic needs its own definition; it is not automatically the ARF outcome.

Three consequences worth sitting with.

A strong school number may not be about your exam. All five of those credentials count toward the same outcome. A program can post an excellent exam passage rate while most of its graduates sat the CCMA or the RMA. If the CMA (AAMA) is your exam, ask for that credential's results specifically.

"Meets the threshold" can be a small share of a class. MAERB requires 30% of graduates to test and 60% of those who tested to pass. Take a hypothetical class of 40 graduates: 12 test, and 8 of them pass. Participation is 12 ÷ 40 = 30%; passage is 8 ÷ 12 = 66.7%, rounded to one decimal place—not exactly 60%. That program has met both exam thresholds, and 8 of its 40 graduates, or 20%, have passed a qualifying credentialing exam. The point is that "we meet MAERB's thresholds" and "nearly everyone here passes" are not the same statement. This illustrates the two exam thresholds, not all accreditation requirements.

Percentages hide the size of the group. One community college announced a 100% first-attempt pass rate for its 2022 medical assisting class. Its photo caption names three graduates, but the announcement does not separately state the total numbers who tested and passed. A photo caption is not a verified denominator. A percentage without a count tells you very little about a small cohort either way. Ask for the counts behind the college's reported result.

Averaging school percentages does not give a candidate pass rate

Hypothetical example, not actual school results.

One program reports 5 passes from 5 candidates. Another reports 36 from 45. Their rates are 100% and 80%. Average those two percentages and you get 90%. But combine the candidates and you get 41 passes out of 50, which is 82%.

The 90% treats a group of 5 and a group of 45 as equally important. The 82% counts people. When you see an "average pass rate" across programs, ask which one it is. And only combine nonoverlapping groups that share the same exam, the same period, and the same attempt definition, which is exactly why the national figure and a school figure cannot be blended into one number.

What to ask a program before you trust its number

Whether you are choosing a program or checking the one you attended, these six questions turn a marketing percentage into something you can evaluate. Missing answers mean the claim is not comparable yet. It does not mean anyone lied.

1. Which exam? Ask for CMA (AAMA) results separately from the other four credentials.
2. Which period and which group? Enrolled students, graduates, or people who actually tested, and for what years.
3. Which attempt? First attempt, eventual pass, or all attempts. Ask them to exclude recertification candidates.
4. What are the raw counts? How many graduated, how many tested, how many passed on a first attempt. Not just a percentage.
5. Who is missing? How non-testers, unknown results, and excluded graduates are handled.
6. Can it be checked? Ask for the underlying report.

On that last point: AAMA's exam application and policies document describes a process for requesting an institution's aggregate exam results from the institution, and verifying those results with AAMA's Certification Department when the institution provides signed written permission (CMA (AAMA) Certification Exam Application and Policies, p. 6). The permission must include the signatory's contact information. This verification route does not promise that every breakdown you request will be available.

Here is a request you can send as is. Fill in the bracket.

Please share your CMA (AAMA) exam results for [cohort or dates], reported separately from other certification exams. Please include the number of graduates, the number who tested, and the number who passed on a first attempt, along with any eventual-pass figure and the follow-up period it uses. Please explain how non-testers, exclusions, and unknown outcomes are handled, and provide the underlying report. If a breakdown is not available, please say so. I would also like signed written permission, including the signatory's contact information, allowing me to verify your aggregate CMA (AAMA) exam results with the AAMA Certification Department.

If a program director answers all six clearly, you have learned something real. If nobody will answer question 4, you have learned something too.

If you did not pass

Roughly three in ten first-time administrations in the published window did not pass. That describes the group; it is not an exact failure count.

What AAMA's current rules say for candidates pursuing initial certification: you get six opportunities to take and pass the exam within a 12-month period starting from your first attempt, each attempt needs a new application and fee, and there is no required waiting period between attempts. The same policy limits candidates to six attempts in any 12-month period. AAMA, Exam Retake Policy, p. 5.

For candidates who have fulfilled the application requirements, the official score report is emailed roughly 24 hours after the exam; AAMA also makes it available in the candidate's account. Start there when planning a second attempt: its content-area bar graphs approximate your performance in general, administrative, and clinical content. They help identify areas to review, not a probability of passing next time. AAMA, Official Score Notification, p. 9; AAMA, results FAQ.

If your credential has expired and you are recertifying by exam rather than certifying for the first time, confirm your own position with AAMA in writing before you reapply. The expired-credential FAQ has a separate attempt-limit clause; do not assume the initial-certification summary above settles your situation. AAMA's Certification Department can be reached at CMAExam@aama-ntl.org. Official contact details, p. 6.

One thing the national rate cannot do is tell you whether to book, delay, or expect a particular result. It is a description of a group of sittings in a ten-month window. It is not a forecast about you.

Three things this number gets confused with

A different exam entirely. "CMA" also names the Certified Management Accountant exam from the Institute of Management Accountants, and the cost-accountancy exams from ICMAI in India. Neither is the medical assisting exam covered here.

A different medical assisting credential. The CCMA, RMA, NCMA, and CMAC are separate exams from separate organizations. Comparing published pass rates across them does not produce a difficulty ranking, because the numbers are not measuring comparable things. The five exams recognized for MAERB reporting are identified in its Policy 205. If you are still choosing, our CMA vs CCMA vs RMA comparison is the page for that decision.

A newer, narrower AAMA credential. AAMA has announced a separate Clinical Support Medical Assistant credential aimed at completers of shorter workforce programs, and states that students and graduates of CAAHEP- or ABHES-accredited programs are not eligible for it (AAMA, Certification). When statistics appear for that credential, they will belong to a different exam. Do not blend them with the figures above.

One more scope note for anyone comparing results across years: AAMA publishes a Content Outline for exam dates before July 2027 and a revised outline for exam dates on or after July 2027. Results earned under one outline were not earned under the other. Use the outline that matches your exam date.

Sources and what we checked

Everything below was opened directly, not read from a search summary.

Last verified September 9, 2026: published pass-rate figures, score terminology, current retake and results guidance, program-result verification, MAERB reporting rules, and outline effective dates.

• AAMA, Certification — “Exam Statistics,” scoring and results FAQs, retake FAQ, the Clinical Support Medical Assistant FAQ, and the outline date selector.
• 2024 AAMA House of Delegates packet — the 2023 examinee table, printed p. 136 / PDF p. 137. The table's population labels are retained rather than converted to first-time groups.
• CMA (AAMA) Certification Exam Application and Policies — Rev. 1-26; retakes on p. 5, aggregate-results verification and contact information on p. 6, and official score notification on p. 9.
• AAMA, Eligibility and Recertification — current routes, use of the same exam for recertification, and the expired-credential FAQ.
• MAERB Policies and Procedures Manual, updated February 2026 — Policy 205, p. 32, for thresholds and eligible exams; Policy 210, p. 36, for public outcomes and its initial-accreditation exception. Fall 2026 ARF Instructions, dated August 2026 — printed pp. 12–13 / PDF pp. 13–14 for graduation-year reporting and outcome updates.
• AAMA, Prepare and both content outlines linked above — the before-July-2027 and on/after-July-2027 distinction. The 2026 Certifying Board report, printed pp. 129–130 / PDF pp. 130–131 was also checked; it did not supply a newer comparable first-time pass-rate cohort.
• The third-party passages, college announcement, and accounting-credential identity pages linked in the relevant sections above. The college's result is its own report, not an independent verification of its students' outcomes.

Our arithmetic is labeled as ours everywhere it appears, and the two worked examples in the school-claims section are labeled as hypothetical. They illustrate how denominators behave. They are not estimates of any real program. This is a selected comparison of official figures, not a complete annual series or a database of school results.

AI-assisted research and editing were used for this page. The linked official sources establish the exam rules and reported results. How we verify what we publish.

Independence and trademark disclosure. Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the American Association of Medical Assistants, its Certifying Board, PSI, CAAHEP, ABHES, or MAERB. Exam, credential, and organization names are used to identify the subjects discussed, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. We do not guarantee passing, a score, licensure, or employment.

Found an error? Tell us. See our corrections log for published corrections.

Related pages: CMA (AAMA) exam requirements · Free CMA (AAMA) practice questions · Compare CMA, CCMA, and RMA