A study plan works best when it follows the exam’s own weighting, not an equal split across all six domains. Here’s a 2-week plan you can compress or stretch depending on how much time you have before your test date.
Why weight your time this way
The exam draws its 75 scored questions from six domains in fixed proportions: Behavior Acquisition (25%), Data Collection and Graphing (17%), Behavior Reduction (19%), Ethics (15%), Documentation and Reporting (13%), and Behavior Assessment (11%). Spending equal time on all six means under-preparing for the domains worth the most points.
A 2-week plan
Days 1-3: Behavior Acquisition (largest domain)
Cover discrete trial teaching, chaining, shaping, prompting and prompt fading, task analysis, and generalization. Practice this domain daily.
Days 4-6: Data Collection and Graphing, and Behavior Reduction
Cover measurement types (frequency, duration, latency, interval recording), graphing conventions, and behavior-reduction concepts like the four functions of behavior, extinction, and differential reinforcement.
Days 7-9: Ethics, Documentation and Reporting
These are the two domains new content pages on this site were built to cover in depth, since they’re commonly under-studied relative to their exam weight (28% combined).
Days 10-11: Behavior Assessment
Cover preference assessments (single stimulus, paired stimulus, MSWO, free operant) and assisting with FBAs.
Days 12-14: Full practice exams and weak-spot review
Take at least two full 85-question timed exams under real conditions. Review every missed question’s explanation, and go back to the domain pages for anything that’s still unclear.
If you have less time
Compress to one week by combining the domain-review days and cutting straight to daily full practice exams once you’ve covered each domain once. Prioritize Behavior Acquisition, Behavior Reduction, and Data Collection and Graphing first since they carry the most weight.
Keep studying
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