How to study for the RBT exam

Start with a baseline

Take one full mock exam before you study anything. It takes 90 minutes and gives you a score in each of the six content areas. That tells you where to start, and later shows you how far you've come.

Spend your time where the questions are

A plan for each content area

1. Read the task pages. Each of the 43 tasks has a study page with definitions, worked examples, non-examples and common mistakes.
2. Answer the task's questions at the bottom of each page, reading every explanation, including the ones you got right.
3. Take the content-area practice sets. They mix the area's tasks, which is harder than one task at a time and closer to the exam.
4. Drill the vocabulary with the flashcards. Many questions turn on telling apart close terms.
5. Go back to your weak spots. The weak-spots mode brings back what you got wrong.

The distinctions that cost the most points

• Positive vs. negative, reinforcement vs. punishment. Positive and negative mean adding or removing a stimulus; reinforcement and punishment mean the behavior increases or decreases. Decide each separately. See C.1 and D.5.
• The differential reinforcement procedures. DRA reinforces a specific alternative behavior, DRI one that can't happen at the same time, DRO the absence of the behavior for an interval, DRL a lower rate. See D.3.
• Partial interval, whole interval and momentary time sampling. Know what each scores and which way each tends to be wrong. Try the interval recording calculator.
• Extinction burst vs. spontaneous recovery vs. resurgence. See D.6.
• Generalization vs. maintenance, and acquisition vs. maintenance procedures. See C.8 and C.9.
• Prompt types and fading direction. Most-to-least vs. least-to-most, response vs. stimulus prompts. See C.7.
• Objective vs. interpretive notes. "Cried for 4 minutes" is objective; "was frustrated" is not. See E.4.

How to read a scenario question

• Find what's being asked first (the last sentence), then read the situation for the facts that matter.
• Name the procedure in your own words before you look at the options.
• When the question asks what an RBT should do, the best answer usually follows the plan and involves the supervisor. An RBT doesn't redesign an intervention, decide a function alone, or stop a procedure without direction (unless someone's safety is at risk and the crisis plan says so).
• Watch for one-word differences between options: "alternative" vs. "incompatible", "any part of" vs. "the entire" interval.

The last week

• Take two or three more mock exams on different days, and look at the content-area breakdown each time.
• Practise calculations by hand: the test center gives you a dry-erase board, not a calculator.
• Reread the ethics code standards with numbers in them: the $10 gift limit, two years for former clients, 30 days to self-report.
• Check your ID matches your BACB account exactly, and plan to arrive 30 minutes early. See exam day.