i finished the CMA a little over a year ago, got decent results (410 and 390 i think). i used gleim, and i'm using roger for CPA. i liked gleim, i thought they covered everything i needed pretty well. their test bank was mostly tougher than the actual CMA exam which was nice. they also hammered certain topics in the test banks, but they weren't that heavily tested (maybe i was just unlucky? doesn't matter, still passed).
i would say for me, i put similar amounts of hours for each section of each exam. part 1 CMA around 120 or so, probably the same with REG, FAR, and cma part 2. some of the MCQ for the CMA do take awhile, and longer than the average CPA question, and 100 straight questions can be brutal. their version of SIMs were good for me, since a lot depended on the style of your writing, grammar, professionalism ect. the WORST part about the cma exam for me was not being able to have a bathroom break. by the end of both exams, i was squirming in my seat. the break you get for the cpa exam was such a relief.
i would just say don't walk into it thinking it's a joke because the cpa exam is considered “tougher” than the cma. approach it with discipline. each test covers topics from just about all 4 cpa exams, along with some other stuff, but isn't nearly as wide as each cpa exam.
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