Studying Strategies for the BCBA Exam

Studying for your BCBA boards can feel like it’s super overwhelming and a daunting mountain to climb. They are so many different ways of studying and it can be confusing to know where to start. I asked on Instagram and I got a lot of recommendations. In this blog I’m going to outline three things.

The first thing is what I’m doing right now to study for my boards. I’m calling it laying the foundation. The second part will be preparing for the test and it’s what I think I will do when I get closer to testing more like April and May. The third part will be all of the resources that were suggested to me!

Part 1-Laying the Foundation

I will not be taking the boards until this summer so seeing as it’s the first week of February, it’s a little too soon for serious studying. I don’t want to spend nearly 6 months preparing and have my brain turned to mush. Instead, I am laying my foundation. I want to make sure I’m fluent in understanding the vocabulary terms and basic concepts of ABA. That way when I go to start taking mock exams I have the prior knowledge and I can really focus on the areas that I’m still struggling at when that time comes.

I am laying my foundation in two different ways. I am doing SAFMEDS and I am reading the Cooper book. If you don’t know what either one of those means, don’t worry I’m going to break it down.

SAFMEDS stands for say all fast minute every day. What this means is in order to truly know the vocabulary, concepts, and principles of ABA you need to know it fluently. Knowing everything fluently will help you when you go to take the boards and in your everyday practice. You need to be spending at least a minute every day working on them. Don’t sit down for six hours and attempt to master all the cards.  Break it down to a little bit each day and slowly build your repertoire.

My SAFMEDS are based on all the things I need to know on the fourth task list because the exam I take will be aligned to the fourth task list. I have three different categories. I have the set that I’m currently working on. There are always 10 cards in my set. I have a partially mastered bin. These are ones that I have a relative grasp on but I need to spend a little bit more time working with. Last, I have my mastered bin. These are ones that I know off the top of my head.

I had not planned on having a partially mastered bin but I had a problem where I pulled my first ten cards and I knew 8 of them really well and then the other two I was still struggling with. My coworker who is also working towards supervision recommended doing a partially mastered bin. So here’s how I use all three.

My current set is in a small bag in my purse. I review these everywhere. While I’m waiting in the lobby for a client to come to therapy. I review when I am standing in line at the grocery store. While I’m waiting for a timer to go off while I’m cooking dinner. While I’m filling up my gas tank. EVERYWHERE. Once I have the word down it goes into the mastered bin.

My partially mastered bin is reviewed each night. I read every single night before bed and my coworker suggested I look at my partially mastered bin before I do that and it was a great suggestion. I want to move these out of my daily set because I wanted to make sure I was constantly introducing new words. My partially mastered bin has a notebook in there. My strategy is to write the word and the definition in the notebook to help me get it into my memory. Again once I get the word down it goes into the mastered bin. 

My husband is a great cheerleader and happy to help me anyway he can so he’s in charge of my master bin. Every Sunday he’s going to test me on the words. This is to make sure that once I master them they stay mastered. If we come across the word that I struggle with we will move it  back to the partially master bin and I will continue to review wait until I have it down again.

My other strategy is to read the Cooper book and that is exactly what it sounds like. I am starting at chapter 1 and I’m going to read through the entire book.  I am going to take handwritten notes. I’m going to write down every definition I can draw diagrams and examples. This will also help me commit it into memory. 

I am currently aiming for about 4 hours a week. At that rate, I’ll be done reading it at the end of April. I might have to ramp it up a little bit as we get closer so I can get the book done before I start studying but it really just depends on the timeline.

Part 2-Studying for the Exam 

I currently plan to start part two in the last month of my supervision but again, it really is just depends on the timeline. If I get through my SAFMEDS and I read the entire Cooper text by the end of March, I might start this phase then. If I don’t get it done until beginning of May, I’ll start this phase at that point. Time will tell.

The very first thing I’ll do in this phase is take a mock exam. I’m leaning towards either the mock exam from the Florida Institute of Technology program or from the Pasa the Big Exam. This will be the best indicator of what I need to do next. 

If I am able to get a high enough score on the mock exam that it indicates I will pass BCBA exam then I will just be able to continue to refresh until it is time to take the test. While I am trying hard to have a positive mindset, I’m also being realistic. I assume the results of the mock exam will show where I need to put in more work. What those results show will indicate how I approach the work. 

If I find that I am struggling in certain areas, I might do concentrated studying. There are chapter outlines I can use to work on whatever chapter of the book I’m struggling in. There are also other tools you can use for specific task list requirements. For example, I was highly recommend a company called Study Notes ABA. They have a product in their store called recorded clinical application of task list G, I, J and K. If where I’m struggling aligns to anything on one of those four sections then that might be a tool I could use to strengthen to my knowledge in that area.

If where I’m struggling is more across-the-board then I might look into doing something like a collective or a one month cram session or something like that. If I don’t do well overall, however I will need to consider how much it could be nerves are testing anxiety and so where I need to work could be more of getting myself calm and less not knowing the knowledge. That’s why I feel like taking a mock exam tentatively at the beginning or middle of April is really going to help me figure out where to go with my studying.

Before I continue to all of the recommendations, I did want to clarify something. I work at a center-based clinic. I am not an in-home therapist and I am not a public school teacher attempting to get hours in the classroom. I work in a building but there is a BCBA present at almost all times. In fact, as I record this podcast, I am accuring a minimum of 8 hours a week directly working with a BCBA. The board only requires 5% of your hours to be directly supervised but I’m getting closer to 25%.

I am extremely lucky that I have so much access to BCBAs. I work for three different ones so I also can get a variety of expertise and opinions. My BCBAs spend a lot of time asking us questions, explaining examples to us, reviewing us when we graph or write protocols and it honestly is the absolute best hands-on supervision I could’ve asked for. For that reason, it’s a lot easier for me to get help. If I take my mock exam and I see something I’m struggling with I can schedule an appointment with my BCBA the very next day and have her help me understand it.

Because I have that, I opted to go for a s more old-school approach of just doing flashcards and reading the Cooper book to lay down my foundation. If you’re in a situation where you are accruing hours as an in-home therapist and you’re only having contact with your BCBA two or three times a month then you might want to turn to something more like a collective or modules to support you. And I might find out in a couple of months that I need that layer of support as well but I want to see how far I can get with my own prior knowledge and when I’m learning on the job in terms of trying to pass the boards.

Step 3-The Resources

The rest of this podcast will just share all of the recommendations I got on Instagram and the frequency of recommendations. I thought calculating that would help you guys know. To me, if I have 50 people answer me and 2 people recommend one module and 32 people recommended the other module that’s a big indicator to me. If I’m going to invest the money I’d like to invest money in something that I know a lot of people been successful with so I’ll calculate percentages and let you know what the recommendation is, what it means and the percentage of people that recommended it to me.

Pass the Big ABA Exam-29% of people recommended. They have study manuals that you can purchase to use while you read the Cooper Book and learn the Task List. They has video modules you can watch online, as well as study workshops and mock exams.

BDS Modules-6% of people recommended. I believe this one has been around for a while. Behavior Development Solutions has modules you can purchase to study for the exam.

Study Notes ABA-53% of people recommended. They have an extensive collection, including collectives, video/audio trainings, mock exams, workbooks and more. They also have a podcast that breaks things down in a relatable format as well an an app.

ABA Wizard App-20% of people recommenced. They have an app with review quizzes on everything on the 4th edition task list. You can take mini quizzes right on your phone, get instant feedback and track your progress. They recently started carrying mock exams as well.

Facebook Groups-There are a great way to join a community of people in the field. A variety were suggested, but the two most common ones were ABA Mind Set and ABA Study Group.

Florida Institute of Technology Mock Exam-8% of people recommended this one. It is a mock exam that is very close to the actual board exam. It is a great tools to determine exactly where you need to beef up your studying. I plan to take this one, as my coworker is a student here and has advocated for the resources.

Rogue ABA-11% of people recommended this website. They also have mock exams, workbooks and a 5-week study course. Be sure to follow them on Instagram. They do free trivia quizzes in their stories on the weekends and they offer free zoom classes as well.

My mom got me this product from Etsy. It came with flashcards and a manual. I cannot advocate for it’s success rate as I have just started, but it already seems like a very affordable option for studying and I am happy with it!

I hope this was filled with a ton of suggestions as you get started with studying for the boards! Comment with any other ideas you have!