I want to share my experience because I spent months searching for posts like this and couldn't find many. I failed the BCABA twice before finally passing last month. My first attempt I went in underprepared — I'd been working as an RBT for three years and thought my field experience would carry me. It did not. I scored a 68 when I needed a 75. Second attempt I bought a random BCABA practice test bundle from a random Etsy seller and those questions barely aligned with the actual task list. Another 70. Embarrassing.
What finally clicked for me on attempt three: I stopped treating this like a knowledge test and started treating it like a behavior analysis application test. The exam doesn't care that you've run a thousand discrete trials. It wants you to justify every decision through the science. I restructured my entire study guide around the BACB ethics code and measurement systems specifically.
Has anyone else found that their clinical experience actually worked against them by creating bad habits around the "right" textbook answer? Genuinely curious how others navigated this.