How did you get your BCBA supervision hours without burning out?
I'm currently working toward my bcba certification and I'm struggling to find a supervisor who isn't already overloaded with supervisees. I have about 800 hours of unrestricted fieldwork completed but I still need another 1,000 before I can even think about sitting for the exam.
My biggest challenge right now is that the supervision meetings keep getting rescheduled because my supervisor has 12 other people under them. I've been doing a lot of independent reading on behavior analysis and ABA therapy principles, but I feel like I'm spinning my wheels without consistent feedback on my cases.
Has anyone found a good system for tracking hours and making the most of limited supervision time? I've been using a spreadsheet but it feels clunky. Also, how early did you start studying for the actual exam alongside your fieldwork hours? I don't want to cram everything at the end.
If you're also prepping for the exam, I found the practice tests on BCBA practice tests really helpful for understanding which domains need the most attention. Would love to hear how others balanced this phase.
I finished my hours last year and the scheduling chaos was real. What helped me was sending a structured case summary to my supervisor 48 hours before our meeting — they could skim it and we'd spend the whole session on feedback instead of background. For tracking, the BACB has a free experience tracker that's actually pretty solid once you get used to it. I started light exam studying around the 1,500-hour mark, just 30 minutes a day on ethics and measurement concepts. Spreading it out made the final push way less overwhelming.
Twelve supervisees per supervisor is way too many — BACB recommends keeping it manageable. I'd honestly look into adding a secondary supervisor from a private clinic; some will do it for free in exchange for you helping with data collection. It splits your hours across two mentors and you get different perspectives on behavior analysis approaches. Also worth joining a local ABA study group — they don't count as supervision but the peer accountability keeps you consistent with exam prep.
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