hello everyone....I reside in Florida, and to my knowledge and facts. We do have 2 years Medical Assisting programs that upon graduation you receive an A.S. degree, which places you in the category to take the CMA exam. The RMA exam does not require that you have a degree, you can either have gone to a technical school and graduated with a diplopma/certificate, than you can sit for the test or you can have a A.S. degree and still sit for the RMA, it just places you in a different category as far as creditialing. I have worked as a CMA for 5 years now and I have written prescriptions, called in prescriptions and the whole nine yards, but of course with the doctors approval.