Dana Do’s: Why You’re Not Passing the BCBA® Exam

I had a phone call with a student the other day who’s struggling to pass the big exam. She’s tried everything and wanted my advice on what to do next. I asked her why she thought she wasn’t passing, and her answer was “I don’t know”. Now, I have this conversation a lot. And I’m often met with “I don’t know” when I ask that question. And the problem with that is, if you don’t know, then I for sure don’t know. I mean, I wish I did and I swear I’d tell you if I knew. But the thing is, behavior analytically speaking, we have to have an answer to that question. We have to define and operationalize the problem in order to address this with a functional solution, like we do with our clients. And it works for them. So, if you’re struggling with the exam, unsure of what to do next, what I urge you to do is have it on his conversation with yourself. Dig deep to identify, is it building more fluency? Getting more applied experience? Needing more mock exams? Needing to work on memorization? Or getting deeper with the content? Whatever the answer, you have to operationalize the problem. And if you do you have a much better chance of coming up with an effective solution and beating those daunting odds.

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