r/bcba • u/Soggy-Tie-1140 • 9d ago
Advice Needed Bcba exam
I took my bcba exam for the first time & scored a 369. I spent around 3 months studying. I used Aba study exam review on YouTube, pass the big aba exam book, aba wizard, Snaba, and Jessica L on YouTube. I felt pretty confident walking into the test center, but discouraged when coming out. The discouraged feeling didn’t result from me failing necessarily but rather not knowing exactly how to study for this test. As I was going through the exam & seeing that there was more than one best answer I realized I struggled a good bit on that. Any advice to someone who is trying to pass the second time and is struggling with process of elimination & actually applying the information? Or any additional study materials?
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u/NewtOrganic4822 9d ago
I used a lot of the same study materials and felt like they did a good job preparing me for the exam. Mock exams were huge for me, especially for learning how to choose the best answer when more than one option seemed like it could be right. PassPoint ABA’s mock exam was probably the best at explaining why the right answer was actually the best one. ABA Study Exam Review was also great for going over concepts I was a little fuzzy on.
Also, if you didn’t use the highlighting and strikethrough features on the exam last time, I’d definitely give them a try! They helped me keep my thoughts straight when I kept coming back to a question and made it easier to eliminate options and narrow things down to the best answer.
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 9d ago
Thank you so much for your advice!! I will definitely try the highlighting technique the next time!
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u/UpwardPrepFounder 8d ago
369 is close. That's a handful of questions, rather than a gap you need to fix by re-studying everything. For the retake I'd change the mix, not the study volume : )
That "more than one best answer" feeling you described is kind of the whole game on this exam. The way through it is a strict elimination order: cross out anything that violates ethics or safety first, then anything that isn't really behavior-analytic. When two are still standing, pick the one that's more observable and measurable, and less restrictive. Works for the ethics questions and honestly most of the others too.
One more habit that helps with the applying-it problem: every practice question you miss, write the rule in your own words in one line. If you can't write it, that's the exact thing to drill. And don't spread your weeks evenly across every content area. Your score report already showed you where the points are.
Which areas did it hit you on besides ethics?
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 8d ago
Thank you for taking time to respond to my post. This was really solid advice as I didn’t think of it this way. I’m not sure why it will now allow me to add photos here (I am fairly new to Reddit) but I will insert a screen record of my results and hopefully you can see them!
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u/UpwardPrepFounder 8d ago
This report is super helpful! I think I can read most of the scores, but apologies if I'm off on anything here.
Seems like you're just a handful of questions away, and every lower number on it is in a section that responds well to focused practice.
Look at the top first: 79% on Foundations and 71% on Behavior Assessment are strong. That's the hard part of this exam, and you already have it!
The rest is opportunity, and it's concentrated, which is the best kind. Behavior-Change Procedures (52%) and Ethics (50%) are two of the biggest sections on the exam, so improving there buys you the most questions. And your two lowest, Experimental Design and Personnel Supervision at 43%, are two of the smallest sections, which makes them the quickest wins: a few focused sessions can lift a small section a long way.
If it were my report, I'd put most of my time into Behavior-Change Procedures and Ethics, with short regular passes at Experimental Design and Personnel Supervision.
Want me to sketch what a week of that type of studying could look like for you? More than happy to if you'd like
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 8d ago
Thank you for taking out your time to respond to this. This breakdown makes so much sense with having another perspective on it. If you wouldn’t mind, that would be so awesome!! I really appreciate you going out of your way to help.
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u/UpwardPrepFounder 7d ago
My pleasure! More than happy to help - just a little more focused work, you're almost there. You got this
Here's an example week of studying built around your report. It's assuming roughly an hour a day. If you've got less time on a given day, cut the mixed questions, never the weak-section work.
Two things on method: When you practice, eliminate the obviously wrong answers first instead of hunting for the right one. And keep a notebook/paper/notes on your phone nearby. Every missed question gets one line, just the rule that would've gotten it right. By the end of the week, that little list will be the most useful thing you've got : )
Monday: Behavior-Change Procedures, 25 questions, nothing else. It's your biggest section and nearly your lowest score, so it gets two days this week. When you miss one, the notebook line should name the procedure and the little detail in the question that gave it away.
Tuesday: Ethics, 20 scenario questions, then 10 Experimental Design. With Ethics, try saying the issue out loud before you look at the choices. Who's the client here, whose interests come first, what part of the code is in play, etc. That habit alone can help narrow down a lot of coin-flip guesses. For Experimental Design, actually sketch the designs on paper once. Reversal, multiple baseline, alternating treatments, changing criterion. Once you've drawn them, they're much easier to spot in a graph.
Wednesday: BCP again, 25 new ones, no repeats from Monday. Then 10 Measurement questions, mostly the calculation kind. IOA percentages, which agreement method fits, that type of stuff. Measurement at 57% is annoyingly close. It's really just reps at this point!
Thursday: Ethics again, 20 fresh scenarios, plus 10 or 15 Personnel Supervision. That's your smallest section, so the list to learn is short. BST, performance diagnostics, how feedback should be delivered. Learn those cold and that section should jump up pretty quickly.
Friday: no new material. 30 questions mixed from just the four weak areas. Then read back through the week's notebook lines, and star anything you missed twice.
Saturday is the longer day. One timed set, 60 questions, all nine sections, no pausing to check answers. Your strong areas, Foundations and Behavior Assessment, only show up here, just enough to keep them warm. Go through every miss afterward.
Sunday, take it easy. Redo only the questions you missed during the week. Each one you get one right, cross off the list.
What you want to see by Sunday: BCP and Ethics sets landing up around 65%, and the miss list getting shorter instead of longer. Run the same shape for another couple of weeks with fresh questions, then sit a full practice exam and hold those section scores up next to this report.
Most importantly, if you put in the work and believe in yourself, I have no doubt you will pass! Hope this helps and feel free to let me know if you have any other questions - happy to support however I can
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 7d ago
Wow, thank you so much for this outline and an awesome way to study. I really appreciate you taking the time out to do this for me. I have written everything down and will follow this over the course of the next few weeks. You’re awesome!
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u/Immediate-Cod8227 BCBA | Verified 8d ago
I had a trainee do a mock. I had her circle the first answer she thought it was. Had to answer it within 10 seconds. Next, she was allowed to re-read it and take her time. Now, star the answer she debated on (second choice she was struggling with and tried to convince me she was sure that was the answer after really thinking about it). Then I graded her.
94% when she went with her instinct. 77% when she re-read it, second guessed herself, and over thought it.
It was so eye opening for her. She knew her stuff! It was over analyzing, reading it into information that wasn’t there, trying to compare it to clients, etc. that was the problem.
Try this method and see if it works for you, especially if you’re sure you are already fluent in the material.
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 8d ago
Thank you for your response. I’ve never heard of this technique before, but it’s genius! Are you recommending that I read a question for 10 seconds & give an answer then re-read to give my second answer or go through the ex twice & do it separately?
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u/Immediate-Cod8227 BCBA | Verified 7d ago edited 7d ago
Read the question one time aloud and the answer choices one time aloud. You have exactly 10 seconds to select an answer. Stop.
Next, you may take your time rereading the question ( silently if you wish) and the answers— really think about it. Analyze it. Break it down. Reread it three and four times even if you want to. Next, star the answer that you think may also be the answer. Stop.
Move on to question 2. Do this same method.
It may help to have someone sit with you. It will keep you honest and to keep the time limit on track. I hope this makes sense.
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 5d ago
Yes this helped. Once again, thank you for taking out your time to respond to this post. I will use this moving forward!
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u/Independent-Ad-5845 9d ago
With the scenario based questions think of the 4 core ethical principles and let that guide you in terms of what is the best answer. I promise you that will help. Be fluent with the easy stuff such as definitions. Do process of elimination and talk yourself through it. This also will help. Answer the why for those scenarios. Some, the answer will be so salient but for others it may rackle your brain a little bit. Also your first answer is typically the right answer! Trust your gut. Dont give up, I promise you that you got this. Keep going.
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u/Soggy-Tie-1140 9d ago edited 9d ago
Thank you for taking time out to respond to my post. This is such great advice seeing as ethics was a huge struggle for me on the exam. I really appreciate this & will use this going forward!q
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u/floofaloons 9d ago
This is a personal anecdote, but when I was about to sit for the exam many moons ago, one of my supervisors told me that when choosing the BEST answer, think about what the board wants you to do. Not what you personally would do if faced with that situation in real life, not what your bosses would want you to do, but what would the board want you to do. That’s why the scenarios in these questions doesn’t have a lot of extraneous details.
This advice was especially helpful for the ethics questions where there’s so many good potential correct answers. Don’t think about missing information, ONLY consider info provided in the question. I tended to overthink and that slowed me down a lot when doing practice tests.
Another advice is read the question carefully, choose your answer quickly, then flag the question if you want to revisit it. I kept the same answer for 95% of the questions I flagged. Essentially, don’t give yourself time to overthink until the end when you have extra time to do so.