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Associate · Updated October 2026

CTMA Certification Exam (Certified Transaction Monitoring Associate): free practice test

ACAMS' associate certification for transaction monitoring and alert investigation analysts. It covers how monitoring systems work, the red flags they look for, how to investigate and document alerts, and when to escalate and report suspicious activity.

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About the CTMA exam

ACAMS' associate certification for transaction monitoring and alert investigation analysts. It covers how monitoring systems work, the red flags they look for, how to investigate and document alerts, and when to escalate and report suspicious activity.

What's on the exam

CTMA
Transaction Monitoring Foundations
7 key facts
Red Flags and Typologies
7 key facts
Alert Investigation and Disposition
7 key facts
Escalation, SARs and Confidentiality
7 key facts
Monitoring Systems, Tuning and Quality
7 key facts

Each branch is a topic in the official outline. Members see every key fact on the full mind map. Read the free study guide →

How to pass the CTMA exam

  • Alert investigation is the heaviest part of the exam. Practice the steps: review the alert, the customer profile, the history, then decide and document.
  • You need 74% of scored questions, the highest associate pass mark, so aim for 80%+ in practice.
  • Learn the classic patterns by name: structuring, rapid movement of funds, funnel accounts, round-dollar transfers and pass-through activity.
  • 60 questions in 90 minutes: 1.5 minutes each.

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Create a free account after the test: your score by topic, a mistakes bank, the first study-notes topic, flashcards and the AML Red Flags Cheat Sheet.

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What's in the full CTMA prep

Full question bank

150+ exam-style questions written to each official outline. Every answer explained, with the rule it comes from.

Timed exam simulator

Real question counts and time limits, so test day feels like practice day.

Exam Readiness Score

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Flashcards + spaced repetition

298+ cards that come back right before you'd forget them. Five minutes a day keeps every number fresh.

Key study notes

Each topic boiled down to the 5 to 7 facts that get tested, with the standard or rule behind them.

Mind maps

See the whole exam on one screen: every topic and the facts under it.

Sample questions with answers

These are the questions in the free test above, with answers. Try the test first. You'll learn more by getting some wrong.

1. Funds arrive in an account and are sent out again within a day or two, leaving a near-zero balance, with no clear business reason. This pattern is called:
Answer: Rapid movement of funds (pass-through activity). Pass-through or flow-through activity suggests the account is being used as a conduit, a common sign of layering or money mule activity.
2. Many people make cash deposits into one account in different cities, and the money is quickly withdrawn in another region. What typology does this suggest?
Answer: A funnel account. Funnel accounts collect deposits in several places and move the money to one location, a pattern FinCEN has linked to drug trafficking and other crime.
3. A customer keeps depositing cash amounts just under the $10,000 Currency Transaction Report threshold. What is this?
Answer: Structuring. Structuring to avoid a CTR is itself a crime in the US (31 U.S.C. 5324). It should be investigated and, if suspicious, reported in a SAR.
4. Which of these is NOT, on its own, a red flag?
Answer: A customer paying their regular salary into their own account. Regular salary deposits fit a normal profile. Red flags are about activity that doesn't match what you know about the customer.
5. What should an analyst review first when working a transaction monitoring alert?
Answer: The alerted activity in the context of the customer's profile, expected activity and transaction history. Good alert review compares the activity to what's expected for this customer (KYC profile, prior activity, peers) before looking for explanations or red flags.
6. An alert is closed as 'not suspicious'. What must the analyst make sure of?
Answer: That the reasoning and evidence for the decision are documented so a reviewer can follow it. Examiners and auditors test closed alerts. A short, clear rationale with the evidence reviewed is required, not just 'activity reviewed, no concerns'.
7. During an investigation, the analyst finds the customer received funds from three other customers who were recently exited for fraud. This information is best described as:
Answer: A link that may indicate a network and should be included in the investigation. Connections to other suspicious parties can reveal mule networks or organized schemes. Link analysis is a key part of alert investigation.
8. A US bank decides to file a SAR on continuing activity. When should it normally review the account again for a continuing activity SAR?
Answer: Within 90 days, with a continuing SAR filed within 120 days of the previous filing. FinCEN guidance: review continuing activity after a 90-day period and file any continuing SAR within 120 days of the previous SAR.
9. A good SAR narrative should clearly cover:
Answer: Who, what, when, where, why and how the activity is suspicious. FinCEN's SAR guidance asks for the five Ws and how. Law enforcement reads the narrative first, so it must explain why the activity is suspicious.
10. Who may be told that a SAR was filed on a customer?
Answer: Only people with a legitimate need, such as the FIU, law enforcement and regulators; never the subject. SARs are confidential. Disclosing a SAR, or that one was filed, to the subject is tipping off and is prohibited.
11. A rules-based monitoring scenario flags any customer sending more than $3,000 a month to a high-risk country. What is the 'threshold' in this rule?
Answer: $3,000 a month. Scenarios combine conditions (country, product, customer type) with thresholds. Tuning adjusts thresholds to catch risk without flooding analysts with false positives.
12. Above-the-line and below-the-line testing is used to:
Answer: Check whether scenario thresholds are set correctly by reviewing activity just above and just below them. Reviewing samples just below the threshold shows whether suspicious activity is being missed; above-the-line review shows how productive the alerts are.
13. A high false positive rate in transaction monitoring mainly causes:
Answer: Wasted analyst time and a risk that real suspicious activity gets lost in the noise. False positives drain resources and create backlogs. Segmentation, tuning and better data cut them while keeping coverage.
14. Why does poor data quality in core banking systems matter for monitoring?
Answer: Missing or wrong data (such as country codes or customer type) can stop scenarios from firing, creating gaps. Monitoring is only as good as its data feeds. Data lineage, completeness and accuracy checks are part of system validation.
15. Which statement best describes the goal of transaction monitoring?
Answer: To identify unusual activity that may be suspicious so it can be investigated and reported where needed. Monitoring detects unusual activity. Investigation then decides whether it's suspicious, and reporting obligations follow.

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Certification guide

ACAMS associate certifications: CKYCA vs CTMA vs CAFCA: ACAMS' three associate certifications are short, focused credentials for people early in their anti-financial crime career. Each exam has 60 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, and every package costs US$1,045 whether you work in the private or public sector. The difference is the job they're built for: KYC (CKYCA), transaction monitoring (CTMA) or FinTech compliance (CAFCA).

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Exam details are summarized from the official candidate information available in October 2026. ACAMS changes formats and fees, so confirm with ACAMS (Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists) before you book. AMLExamPrep is not affiliated with ACAMS or Pearson VUE.

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