Let’s Understand What Are BACB BCBA Exam and It’s Importance
Let’s Understand What Are BACB BCBA Exam and It’s Importance: Professionals seeking to find great opportunities in the field of Behavior analysis can take the BCBA exam. Behavior analysts can advance their career in schools, hospitals, clinics, NGOs. They can specialize in analysis of areas like developmental disabilities, mental illness, and autism. So, what can you do if you are interested in the following this path? BCBA exam gives you a big opportunity to test your behavior analysis skills. This article will give you all the necessary details related to the exam. It includes the following details:
- Overview of BCBA AND BACB.
- The eligibility criteria for appearing in the exam.
- Exam pattern (includes the duration and total number of questions to attempt).
- How to apply for the exam?
- Why is the recertification thing?
- How to prepare for the exam, what are the resources available?

Let’s Understand What Are BACB BCBA Exam and It’s Importance
What is BCBA and BACB?
These acronyms are really confusing, so let’s hop onto the actual details so that they can easily sink into the head. BCBA stands for Board Certified Behavior Analyst. It is a graduate level certification in behavior analysis. Professionals who have been certified at the BCBA level are mainly individual practitioners who provide behavior-analytic services. BACB on the other hand stands for Behavior Analyst Certification Board. It is the body which offers the BCBA credentials with a mission to provide quality behavior analysts all over the world.
What is the eligibility criteria for a BCBA credential?
There are three options for any BCBA applicant to qualify for getting into the certification process.
Option 1:
The first option required the applicant to have at least a graduate degree (master’s or doctoral) in education, behavior analysis, or psychology. They should possess an acceptable graduate coursework in behavior analysis and should have practical experience in the same or related field for the BCBA exam.
Option 2:
The applicants must have a graduate degree, same as in option 1. They must have at least 3 years of full-time work experience as a faculty member at a qualifying institution. They must also have published one article related to behavior analytics and should have some practical experience too.
Option 3:
The applicant must possess an acceptable doctoral degree that was granted to him/her at least 10 years ago and should have at least 10 years’ post- doctoral practical experience.
So, basically you need to hold a graduate degree, fulfill relevant coursework, complete supervised experience and finally pass BCBA exam. Detailed eligibility structure has been described in BACB’s official website. Go through them thoroughly, if you have any doubts regarding your eligibility you may request them for a preliminary review.
About BCBA exam
The purpose behind BCBA exam is to test the knowledge consistency of the entry level behavior analyst. The exam consists of 150 multiple choice questions and each question has 4 possible answers. The exam content is based on BCBA TASK LIST. Along with the 150 questions, the candidates will see 10 ungraded pilot questions as well. That makes a total of 160 questions for the candidates to answer. All the candidates will be given 4 hours to complete the exam and 4 hours includes everything from reviewing the questions, reading instructions and any breaks taken in the exam time. The exam will be held at Pearson VUE centers which are located all over the world. It will be based on the CBT format which is the Computer Based Testing.
How to apply
The candidate must prove that he or she has met all the eligibility requirements first. The applicant will only be permitted to take BCBA exam after he/she completely submits the application fully documenting that all the eligibility requirements have been met. You can avail the applications from the BACB gateway. For an application to be marked as complete it should include the following things:
- Full payment should be made on time.
- The online application should be completely filled and submitted.
- All the required documents, coursework evaluation, documentation, degree evaluation documentation should be submitted as a whole.
What’s up with maintaining BCBA certification?
BCBA certified professionals are required to complete recertification including payment every 2 years. This is required as per BACB’s policy to meet and maintain the standards according to changing circumstances. BCBA credentials are considered entry level credentials and that indicates that aspirants have met the minimum standard for training and experience in the discipline. BACB tries to ensure that all certified professionals engage themselves in activities that expand and maintain their behavior-analytic skills.
If you want to know about the recertification cycle and other information regarding the same visit the
BACB official website.
How to prepare for the certification exam?
You have already completed the first step of the preparation process as you are a graduate and lot of the knowledge gained in behavior analysis during that period will be of help. If you need a book, which you will need eventually then go for John O Cooper’s- “Applied Behavior Analysis”. Many people have benefitted from this 800-page book that is full of hundreds of citations, definitions of technical terms, concepts for the readers. If you have been away from multiple-choice exams for a long time, then better start practicing in that mode. You can look for online multiple-choice test preparation for BCBA exam. In accordance, https://www.examsnap.com/bcba-dumps.html website can be of great help to you.
They have got everything you need for practicing the multiple choice questions. You can also buy some modules online for reviewing the content matter. And to gain more confidence take help from BCBA supervisor. Nothing can beat the knowledge you gain by practically experiencing it. You do have to memorize a lot of things and you can take up some online courses for more helpful course materials.
One last thing, the exams will be conducted at Pearson VUE centers and therefore to gain familiarity with Computer Based Testing you can visit their official site https://home.pearsonvue.com/ so that you can become more comfortable with their interface.