RBT practice test 27

25 questions across all six content areas, weighted like the real exam. Every answer is explained, including why each wrong option is wrong.

25 questions

Question 1In a clinic playroom, several toys are spread out and an adolescent can move freely among them for 10 minutes. The RBT records how long the client engages with each toy. Which preference assessment is this?
Show answer
A: Free operant. A free-operant assessment gives continuous, unrestricted access to items for a set period and measures time spent with each. No item is presented or removed by trial.
- B: Single-stimulus assessment presents one item at a time in separate trials.
- C: MSW uses repeated choice trials from an array.
- D: A paired-stimulus assessment uses trials with two items.
Task B.1 · 40-hour curriculum section D
Question 2After a home session, an RBT has paper data sheets with the client's name on them and needs to stop at a store on the way back to the office. What is the best way to handle the data sheets?
Show answer
D: Keep them secured and out of sight, as agency policy requires. Protecting confidential information includes storing records securely during transport and at rest, following the employer's rules and the law (Standard 2.08).
- A: Sheets in plain view can be seen or taken, exposing client information.
- B: Personal phones are not approved storage, and discarding originals loses records.
- C: Records the RBT is responsible for should not be left with others.
Task F.5 · RBT Ethics Code 2.08
Question 3Which of these may an RBT never use as a consequence for a client's behavior?
Show answer
D: Withholding a meal the client needs. Withholding food, water or other basic needs harms the client and is never an acceptable consequence. RBTs do no harm and use only procedures in the client's plan.
- A: Response cost is acceptable when it is written in the plan and the RBT is verified competent.
- B: Time-out is acceptable when it is in the plan and the RBT is verified competent.
- C: Overcorrection is acceptable when it is in the plan and the RBT is verified competent.
Task D.5 · 40-hour curriculum section E · RBT Ethics Code 2.01
Question 4Early in a token system, the client exchanges tokens after earning 2 of them. Over the following weeks, the supervisor's plan raises the requirement to 5 tokens and then 10. What is this change called?
Show answer
B: Gradually thinning the exchange requirement. Increasing the number of tokens needed before an exchange, in planned steps, thins the schedule of backup reinforcement so that the client works longer for each backup reinforcer.
- A: Response cost is the removal of tokens after a behavior, not a higher exchange requirement.
- C: Satiation is a loss of reinforcer value from recent heavy access; raising the requirement does not create it.
- D: The tokens have already been paired; this change is about how many are needed per exchange.
Task C.2 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 5In a high-probability request sequence, which requests are used as the high-p requests?
Show answer
C: Requests the client reliably follows. High-p requests are ones the client has a strong history of following. Quick compliance with them, followed by reinforcement, comes right before the low-p request.
- A: Requests the client rarely follows are low-p requests.
- B: New skills are not yet reliable, so they would not produce a run of compliance.
- D: Hard requests would lower the chance of compliance during the sequence.
Task D.2 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 6The operational definition says crying is timed from the first cry until crying stops, and that a pause of less than 5 seconds does not end the episode. Crying begins at 10:00:30, pauses at 10:02:00, starts again at 10:02:03, and stops for good at 10:04:00. How should the RBT record this?
Show answer
B: One episode lasting 3 minutes 30 seconds. Because the pause lasted only 3 seconds, the definition makes this a single episode. It is timed from onset (10:00:30) to offset (10:04:00): 3 minutes 30 seconds. Onset and offset rules in the definition decide how episodes are counted and timed.
- A: The 3-second pause is shorter than 5 seconds, so by the definition it does not end the episode.
- C: The episode did not end at 10:02:00, because the crying resumed within 5 seconds.
- D: By the definition the pause is part of the episode, so the episode is timed from first onset to final offset without subtracting it.
Task A.1 · 40-hour curriculum section C
Question 7A family says their top priority is for their child to dress independently. The RBT privately believes academic skills matter more. What should the RBT do?
Show answer
B: Follow the plan and raise any concern with the supervisor. Families' values shape goals, and the supervisor sets goals with the family. The RBT implements the plan as written and keeps personal preferences out of it.
- A: This substitutes the RBT's priorities for the plan and the family's values.
- C: Dismissing the family's values damages trust and is not the RBT's role.
- D: Following the plan selectively is not implementing it accurately.
Task F.10 · RBT Ethics Code 1.07 · RBT Ethics Code 2.02
Question 8During a drawing activity, the RBT gives a child paper but keeps the crayons in hand, so the child has to ask for them. What is the RBT doing?
Show answer
C: Contriving a motivating operation. Holding back a needed item makes it more valuable at that moment (an establishing operation) and gives the child a reason to mand for it.
- A: Planned ignoring withholds attention after problem behavior; here an item is held back to set up a request.
- B: Response cost removes a reinforcer after a behavior; nothing was taken away after a behavior.
- D: Demand fading lowers and then gradually raises task demands, which is not happening here.
Task C.4 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 9Using whole-interval recording with 15-second intervals during a 10-minute observation, an RBT scored on-task behavior in 30 intervals. What percentage of intervals was scored?
Show answer
D: 75%. A 10-minute observation is 600 seconds, which holds 600 / 15 = 40 intervals. Then 30 / 40 x 100 = 75%.
- A: 30 is the number of scored intervals, not a percentage.
- B: This divides by 60 intervals, as if the intervals were 10 seconds long.
- C: 25% is the percentage of intervals that were not scored.
Task A.6 · 40-hour curriculum section C
Question 10In a discrimination program, a client has 20 trials and responds correctly on 16 of them. What percentage of trials were correct?
Show answer
B: 80%. Percentage correct = correct trials ÷ total trials × 100. Here 16 ÷ 20 = 0.80, and 0.80 × 100 = 80%.
- A: 75% would be 15 correct out of 20.
- C: 16 is the number of correct trials, not the percentage; it must be divided by the total.
- D: 20% is the percentage of incorrect trials (4 out of 20).
Task C.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 11Over one week, an RBT notices that a client's crises happen right after the tablet is removed at transitions. What should the RBT do?
Show answer
B: Share the pattern and data with the supervisor. Patterns in crisis data help the supervisor plan prevention, for example with antecedent strategies. The RBT reports what they see promptly instead of changing the plan.
- A: Changing the procedure is the supervisor's decision.
- C: Adding a procedure is outside the RBT's role.
- D: Information that could affect the plan should be reported promptly.
Task D.7 · 40-hour curriculum section E · RBT Ethics Code 2.06
Question 12An NCR plan says to deliver attention every 90 seconds whether or not problem behavior has occurred. The client screamed just before the 90-second mark, so the RBT skipped that delivery to avoid rewarding screaming. What is the problem?
Show answer
D: The RBT changed the plan; delivery should follow the time schedule. The plan sets delivery by time, not by behavior. Skipping deliveries makes attention depend on behavior and changes the procedure. Concerns about timing go to the supervisor.
- A: The plan specifies delivery regardless of behavior; skipping it is a fidelity error.
- B: Extra attention after screaming would deliver attention contingent on screaming.
- C: Restarting the session is not part of the plan.
Task D.2 · 40-hour curriculum section E · RBT Ethics Code 2.02
Question 13In a functional analysis session, the client plays with a tablet briefly, and then the RBT takes it away. Each time the client screams, the RBT gives the tablet back for 30 seconds. Which condition is this?
Show answer
D: Tangible condition. In the tangible condition, a preferred item is removed and returned briefly after problem behavior. This tests whether access to the item maintains the behavior.
- A: In the attention condition, problem behavior produces attention, not an item.
- B: In the escape condition, problem behavior produces a break from tasks.
- C: In the alone condition, problem behavior produces no social consequences.
Task B.3 · 40-hour curriculum section D
Question 14How do antecedent interventions reduce problem behavior?
Show answer
B: By changing conditions before the behavior occurs. Antecedent interventions change what happens before behavior, such as motivating operations, task difficulty or available reinforcers, so problem behavior is less likely to occur in the first place.
- A: Consequences delivered after behavior are consequence-based procedures, not antecedent interventions.
- C: Withholding the reinforcer after behavior is extinction.
- D: Adding an aversive event after behavior is positive punishment.
Task D.2 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 15During a free-operant preference assessment, what does the RBT typically record?
Show answer
B: How long the client engages with each item. Free-operant assessments measure the duration of engagement with each available item. More time spent with an item indicates stronger preference.
- A: Order of selection with removal is MSWO data.
- C: Approach to one presented item is single-stimulus data.
- D: Choosing between pairs is paired-stimulus data.
Task B.1 · 40-hour curriculum section D
Question 16A plan shapes a client's pencil grip: first reinforcing a fist grip that touches the paper, then a grip with fingers on the pencil, then a three-finger grip. Which statement best describes this program?
Show answer
C: The form of the response changes across the steps. Each step reinforces a different form (topography) of grasping that is closer to the target grip. This is shaping across response topographies.
- A: The plan is about how the pencil is held, not about how long the client holds it.
- B: The plan does not target the time between an instruction and the grasp.
- D: These are versions of one behavior, holding the pencil, not separate steps linked in a sequence.
Task C.10 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 17An RBT realizes they have been using partial-interval recording for a behavior that the plan says to measure with momentary time sampling. What should the RBT do?
Show answer
C: Tell the supervisor, since the data so far are not comparable. Different measurement procedures produce numbers that cannot be compared directly. The supervisor needs to know so they can interpret the data.
- A: There is no formula that turns one procedure's data into the other's.
- B: Consistency with the wrong method is not the plan.
- D: Keeping the data without telling the supervisor can mislead decisions.
Task E.2 · 40-hour curriculum section F
Question 18A client meets the plan's criterion for "Touch red" in a two-card array, and the supervisor's plan then moves the target into a three-card array. Which reason best explains this step?
Show answer
A: Guessing is right less often with three cards than with two. With two cards, random choice is right about 50% of the time; with three, about 33%. A larger array makes correct responding a better sign that the instruction controls the choice.
- B: The number of cards does not set how many reinforcers are delivered.
- C: Adding cards does not change the type of discrimination; it adds more comparison stimuli.
- D: Extra cards do not highlight the correct card; a stimulus prompt changes the materials to make the correct choice easier.
Task C.6 · 40-hour curriculum section E
Question 19A client builds a block model at the end of a session, and it must be taken apart right away for the next client, so there is no time to score it on the spot. The plan scores the number of correctly placed blocks, and the supervisor has said that photos of client work that do not show the client may be used for scoring, as organization policy allows. What can the RBT do?
Show answer
C: Photograph the model before it is taken apart and score the photo. When a product cannot stay in place, a photo taken within the organization's privacy rules preserves it so it can be scored and checked later.
- A: Scoring from memory is not scoring the product and is prone to error.
- B: Leaving the model disrupts the next session and is not needed to keep a record.
- D: A photo allowed by policy can preserve the product, so the data need not be lost.
Task A.3 · 40-hour curriculum section C · RBT Ethics Code 2.08
Question 20According to the RBT Handbook, which supervision activity can include reading an RBT's daily progress notes and data sheets?
Show answer
C: Reviewing written materials. The handbook lists reviewing written materials, such as daily progress notes and data sheets, as one supervision activity.
- A: Setting expectations is a different supervision activity.
- B: Modeling is a different supervision activity.
- D: Behavioral skills training is a different supervision activity.
Task E.4 · RBT Handbook p. 17
Question 21A caregiver tells the RBT that the RBT's tone of voice when giving instructions sounds harsh. What should the RBT do?
Show answer
D: Thank them, work on it and tell the supervisor about the feedback. Concerns that others have about the RBT's own services go to the supervisor (Standard 2.06), who can observe and give feedback. Accepting the feedback without becoming defensive is also part of professional conduct.
- A: The RBT is responsible for passing on concerns about their own services.
- B: Defending the behavior dismisses the concern, and the RBT should not claim the plan requires it without checking.
- C: Even if the RBT adjusts, a concern about their services should still reach the supervisor.
Task E.1 · RBT Ethics Code 2.06 · RBT Ethics Code 2.03
Question 22During discrete-trial teaching, which recording practice best protects the accuracy of the data?
Show answer
A: Recording each trial's outcome right after the trial. Recording each response immediately leaves little room for memory errors. Delayed or selective recording leads to estimates that can be biased in either direction.
- B: Recording only some trials gives an incomplete and possibly biased picture.
- C: Waiting until the end relies on memory and invites errors.
- D: An estimate is not a record of what happened on each trial.
Task A.8 · 40-hour curriculum section C
Question 23When a multiple relationship cannot be avoided, what is the main goal of the steps the RBT takes?
Show answer
D: To reduce the risk of harm and conflicts of interest. Mitigation steps, such as informing the supervisor, documenting, and keeping clear boundaries, aim to protect the client from the harm and conflicts of interest that mixed roles can cause.
- A: The code requires telling the supervisor, not hiding the relationship.
- B: Separating the times does not remove the second role.
- C: Stopping services without regard to the client's needs can itself cause harm.
Task F.7 · RBT Ethics Code 1.10 · 40-hour curriculum section G
Question 24While entering data after a session, an RBT realizes they marked a target correct on 12 trials when the client actually answered correctly on 8. The RBT fixes the record using the clinic's correction procedure and tells the supervisor. Which core principle does this most directly show?
Show answer
C: Behaving with integrity. Integrity means being honest and accountable, including owning and correcting your own mistakes. Correcting the data and telling the supervisor keeps the record truthful, as Standards 1.01 and 3.02 require.
- A: Competence is about having the skills for the work; the key act here is honestly correcting a record.
- B: Compassion concerns how the RBT treats people, which is not the focus of correcting a data error.
- D: Cultural responsiveness concerns working well with people of diverse backgrounds, not fixing a data error.
Task F.1 · RBT Ethics Code 1.01 · RBT Ethics Code 3.02
Question 25A task analysis for making a sandwich has 12 steps. In today's session, the client completed 9 steps independently. What percentage of steps were completed independently?
Show answer
B: 75%. Divide independent steps by total steps and multiply by 100: 9 / 12 = 0.75, or 75%.
- A: 25% is the percentage of steps not completed independently (3 / 12).
- C: 90% of 12 steps would be 10.8 steps, more than the 9 completed.
- D: 66.7% would be 8 of 12 steps, not 9.
Task C.5 · 40-hour curriculum section E · 40-hour curriculum section C

Answer every question to see your score.

Practice test 28

What this test covers

Questions in this test by task
Task	Questions
A.1 Continuous measurement	1
A.3 Permanent product recording	1
A.6 Calculating and summarizing data	1
A.8 Unreliable data and poor procedural fidelity	1
B.1 Preference assessments	2
B.3 Functional assessment	1
C.2 Conditioned reinforcers	1
C.4 Naturalistic teaching	1
C.5 Task analysis and chaining	1
C.6 Discrimination training	2
C.10 Shaping	1
D.2 Antecedent interventions	3
D.5 Positive and negative punishment	1
D.7 Crisis and emergency procedures	1
E.1 Communicating team concerns to your supervisor	1
E.2 Seeking clinical direction	1
E.4 Objective session notes	1
F.1 Core ethics principles	1
F.5 Confidentiality	1
F.7 Multiple relationships	1
F.10 Cultural humility and responsiveness	1

6 easier, 10 exam-level and 9 harder questions. Each task link opens its study page.

Question 1In a clinic playroom, several toys are spread out and an adolescent can move freely among them for 10 minutes. The RBT records how long the client engages with each toy. Which preference assessment is this?

Question 2After a home session, an RBT has paper data sheets with the client's name on them and needs to stop at a store on the way back to the office. What is the best way to handle the data sheets?

Question 3Which of these may an RBT never use as a consequence for a client's behavior?

Question 4Early in a token system, the client exchanges tokens after earning 2 of them. Over the following weeks, the supervisor's plan raises the requirement to 5 tokens and then 10. What is this change called?

Question 5In a high-probability request sequence, which requests are used as the high-p requests?

Question 6The operational definition says crying is timed from the first cry until crying stops, and that a pause of less than 5 seconds does not end the episode. Crying begins at 10:00:30, pauses at 10:02:00, starts again at 10:02:03, and stops for good at 10:04:00. How should the RBT record this?

Question 7A family says their top priority is for their child to dress independently. The RBT privately believes academic skills matter more. What should the RBT do?

Question 8During a drawing activity, the RBT gives a child paper but keeps the crayons in hand, so the child has to ask for them. What is the RBT doing?

Question 9Using whole-interval recording with 15-second intervals during a 10-minute observation, an RBT scored on-task behavior in 30 intervals. What percentage of intervals was scored?

Question 10In a discrimination program, a client has 20 trials and responds correctly on 16 of them. What percentage of trials were correct?

Question 11Over one week, an RBT notices that a client's crises happen right after the tablet is removed at transitions. What should the RBT do?

Question 12An NCR plan says to deliver attention every 90 seconds whether or not problem behavior has occurred. The client screamed just before the 90-second mark, so the RBT skipped that delivery to avoid rewarding screaming. What is the problem?

Question 13In a functional analysis session, the client plays with a tablet briefly, and then the RBT takes it away. Each time the client screams, the RBT gives the tablet back for 30 seconds. Which condition is this?

Question 14How do antecedent interventions reduce problem behavior?

Question 15During a free-operant preference assessment, what does the RBT typically record?

Question 16A plan shapes a client's pencil grip: first reinforcing a fist grip that touches the paper, then a grip with fingers on the pencil, then a three-finger grip. Which statement best describes this program?

Question 17An RBT realizes they have been using partial-interval recording for a behavior that the plan says to measure with momentary time sampling. What should the RBT do?

Question 18A client meets the plan's criterion for "Touch red" in a two-card array, and the supervisor's plan then moves the target into a three-card array. Which reason best explains this step?

Question 20According to the RBT Handbook, which supervision activity can include reading an RBT's daily progress notes and data sheets?

Question 21A caregiver tells the RBT that the RBT's tone of voice when giving instructions sounds harsh. What should the RBT do?

Question 22During discrete-trial teaching, which recording practice best protects the accuracy of the data?

Question 23When a multiple relationship cannot be avoided, what is the main goal of the steps the RBT takes?

Question 24While entering data after a session, an RBT realizes they marked a target correct on 12 trials when the client actually answered correctly on 8. The RBT fixes the record using the clinic's correction procedure and tells the supervisor. Which core principle does this most directly show?

Question 25A task analysis for making a sandwich has 12 steps. In today's session, the client completed 9 steps independently. What percentage of steps were completed independently?

What this test covers