AMA Certified Professional in Management®

A Certified Professional in Management is a professional accreditation program designed to verify an individual's ability to manage others and lead within an organization.

As a leader in management training and education, AMA developed management competencies and a certification program in professional management to improve performance excellence.

• Our mission is to create a standard of excellence in management.
• Our vision is to improve society by helping individuals and organizations achieve performance excellence through management certification.

In order to accomplish this mission and vision, AMA has created eligibility requirements; a fair, valid and reliable examination; and ongoing maintenance of recertification requirements through which candidates can demonstrate their management competencies.

The ideal target audience is early to mid-level managers. A few possible audiences:

• One with no management experience who wants the certification to support promotional opportunities in the future
• One who recently became a manager and wants the certification to demonstrate that they have met the credential’s standards
• One with management experience who wants the certification to demonstrate that they have met the credential’s standards

Managers are defined as anyone who manages people and process, so they may hold a title of team leader, supervisor, manager, assistant manager, etc., within their organization.

Those who possess the AMA Certified Professional in Management^® credential communicate that they have met the credential’s standards and bring value to business and industry, employers and supervisors, other professionals and the public.

Attaining the credential may give certified professionals a competitive edge over other colleagues and applicants for the same job.

Those who have the credential will be able to show current and future employers that they have met a standard that exemplifies critical knowledge, skills and abilities needed for professional managers – including in areas related to professional effectiveness, relationship management, business acumen and analytical intelligence.

Organizations hire employees with various certifications–project management, human resources, IT, etc. The reasons why organizations would want certified managers include:

• Increased level of assurance that managers holding the designation have a better quality of skills and knowledge of management than those who do not.
• Organizations can rely on the certification and recertification process to address skill gaps in their management population and ensure continuous development.
• In general, people do not leave jobs, they leave managers. The certification will ensure managers have the skills and knowledge to increase productivity and create a positive work environment.
• The standard in management includes competencies in the 4 domains of effective management–Professional Effectiveness, Relationship Management, Business Acumen and Analytical Intelligence. Developing competence in these 4 areas will increase organizational performance.
• Client and investors may have greater confidence in how the business is managed.

AMA and ACT conducted a job task analysis for the role of the manager. A draft description of a competent manager was developed and validated and aligned to the structure of the AMA Standard in Management™ competency framework. The competencies for a manager are in four areas: professional effectiveness, relationship management, business acumen, and analytical intelligence. The Management Body of Knowledge includes detailed information on each competency within each area.

There are multiple pathways to eligibility, each of which is based on education and professional experience:

The exam is aligned to the AMA Standard in Management™ competency framework and follows the topics listed in the content outline or test specifications. The AMA Standard in Management™ competency framework includes key competencies and tasks associated with four areas: Professional Effectiveness, Relationship Management, Business Acumen, and Analytical Intelligence.

The examination is organized as follows:

The credential is held by the individual and will follow the individual throughout their career as long as they maintain their credential.

The exam is comprised of 175 single response, multiple choice questions designed to assess the applicant’s knowledge and skills in performing managerial tasks.

The exam itself is 3.5-hours. In addition, there is an optional tutorial before the exam and a post-test survey making the actual seating time 4 hours.

PSI provides the actual testing centers where candidates will go to take a proctored exam. The candidate will need to bring a valid driver’s license or other government issued ID to the testing center for identification purposes.

No; the exam is administered online, separately, at a PSI testing center. The examination required for certification is NOT part of any course.

After your application is approved and you receive an authorization, you can schedule your exam online. You must schedule your exam before arriving at a PSI test center.

You may decide to schedule your examination to occur within the next testing window that follows the completion of your study. Check the website for the dates of the scheduled testing windows and coordinate your preparation with the scheduled testing windows.

The AMA prep course is guaranteed so if you do not pass you can take another prep course at no additional charge.

Three times within your one-year eligibility period, but one time within one testing window. The eligibility period starts once your application is approved.

You will need to start the process over and re-apply to take the exam after your current eligibility period expires.

Yes, there are two fees associated with earning the certification–the $50.00 non-refundable application fee and the $450 USD examination fee.

The passing score is 625 (based on a range from 200 – 800).

Scores are reported using a scale that transforms raw scores to a common scale. In this way, those who have taken the exam can view their performance in terms of how well they know the material, rather than compared with others who have taken the exam.

This is important because each test has its own difficulty level and passing point, and numerically, these passing points may differ. This prevents occurrences such as two different people receiving the same raw score, but one of them passes, and the other does not.

A scaled score mechanism is used, which allows credentialing programs to indicate examination performance with a consistent metric across all examination sessions.

In addition, scale scores provide decision makers—those who might be interpreting the exam results of others—with information that can be consistently interpreted across time.

In summary, scale scores are not “number correct” or “percent correct” scores; they are an indication of performance where 625 or above represents that the passing standard has been met.

 For more information, please click here.

It is our policy not to share the pass rate for the AMA-CPM^® credential exam.

Like the SATs, GREs, driver’s license test, and medical boards, the AMA-CPM^® exam is based on taking a standardized test, rather than comparing results of all people who have taken the test. Ultimately, we want only qualified candidates to pass and be certified.

Yes. If you do not pass the exam, you may take another prep course with no additional charge.

At any PSI testing center. Once you receive your authorization to test letter and start the process of scheduling your test you will be able to locate a PSI test center that is convenient to you. You will not be able to search for a test location before you receive your authorization to test.

For information on taking a live remote proctored exam, click here.

Yes, for more information on taking a live remote proctored exam, click here.

The certification expires 3 years after it is attained unless continuing education requirements, called Professional Management Units (PMUs), are maintained.

Candidates will earn the right to place AMA-CPM^® after their names on business cards and signatures. Successful candidates will also be sent a link to a time-limited, digital representation of the credential that describes the knowledge and skills required to earn the certification.

For a comprehensive guide on maintaining your AMA-CPM^® certification and information about Professional Management Units (PMUs), download the Recertification Handbook.

Certificate holders will have to renew their certification every 3 years through attaining 60 Professional Management Units (PMUs) through education and professional development activities.

Education - 32 PMU Minimum: 1 hour = 1 PMU

• 3 PMUs Minimum in the area of: Professional Effectiveness
• 3 PMUs Minimum in the area of: Relationship Management
• 3 PMUs Minimum in the area of: Business Acumen
• 3 PMUs Minimum in the area of: Analytical Intelligence

Education can be:

• Webinars
• Self-paced learning event (on-demand)
• Live-streaming seminars
• In-person classroom learning events
• Conference session
• Semester long college course

Advancing the Profession – 28 PMU Maximum: 1 hour = 1 PMU

• 8 PMUs Maximum Working
• 20 PMUs Maximum Volunteering or Creating/Presenting Content

Work is defined as:

• Serving as an active contributing team member
• Serving as a team lead
• Having responsibility for organizing other team members
• Driving and motivating team members
• Acting as an influencer or “go to” person without title authority
• Managing one or multiple direct reports
• Possessing functional or technical expertise

Volunteering is defined as:

• Participating in the development and maintenance of the AMA-CPM certification program:
  • 2-day meeting: 16 PMUs
  • 1-day meeting: 8 PMUs
  • 1 - 2-hour conference call: 2 PMUs
  • Certification Steering Committee: 20 PMUs (includes meetings and conference calls)
  • Advisory Board Committee: 20 PMUs (includes meetings and conference calls)
• Creating or Presenting Content:
  • 10 PMUs for preparing and presenting a presentation at a conference
  • 15 PMUs for preparing and publishing a peer-reviewed professional journal article
  • 20 PMUs preparing and presenting a college course on management
  • 20 PMUs for writing a chapter on management for an edited volume

Continuing education units specific to the AMA Certified Professional in Management^® (AMA-CPM^®) certification are called Professional Management Units, or PMUs.

Log into your AMA-CPM account to enter your Recertification application. Add activities under Education, Work and Volunteering. Please refer to the appropriate section in this handbook for further details.

Yes. AMA-CPM recertification recognizes the need to provide a broad range of management development and educational services. Ensuring that course offerings from other education providers are available, support the intellectual curiosity and well-being of the AMA-CPM community.

No. Although not a requirement to read prior to testing, there is a presumption that most people will look at the MBOK to help prepare for the AMA-CPM credential. When entering PMUs into the recertification application, only activities that have occurred after the credential was awarded are applicable towards maintaining the credential. Therefore, reading the MBOK prior to gaining the credential is not applicable for PMUs.

Although there may be subtle differences depending on the type of learning event being submitted, please follow these general guidelines. Please note that all the following information should be obtained from and given to you from either the instructor or presenter:

• Course Description: Brief statement informing the learner of the subject matter material and content that will be presented during the learning event.
• Learning Objectives: Detailed statement describing how the learner will benefit from taking the course and what the learner will know and/or be able to do at the end of the learning event.
• Timed Agenda: The timed agenda MUST include information on the numbers of minutes/hours given to each module or topic, the module or topic being covered, the instructional methodology and the appropriate domain from the AMA Standards in Management being addressed (Professional Effectiveness, Relationship Management, Business Acumen, Analytical Intelligence). Instructional methodologies can include but are not limited to group discussion, case study, team activity, individual exercise, role play, instruments (MBTI), polls, game/simulation, demonstration, peer review.
• Faculty Bio: The brief bio should be something that the instructor should provide to you – maybe even have already in his/her LinkedIn summary. Here is information from Google on what is expected in a short bio https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-write-a-short-bio#:~:text=You%20can%20often%20find%20short,description%20of%20their%20professional%20goals and https://clariongr.com/blog/how-to-write-a-short-bio-about-yourself/. If the instructor does not have this, he/she should create one and then send to you so that you can either copy the URL or the text and paste it into your application:
• Proof of Completion: Examples of proof of completion include:
  • transcript (in the case of a college course)
  • certificate of achievement (in the case of a webinar)
  • proof from conference organizers validating which conference sessions were attended and the combined number of hours (information is based on data from scanned badges upon entry into each conference session)