30-Day RBT Exam Study Plan
A free, structured plan to take you from zero to exam-ready in 30 days. Built around the BACB RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.) weightings: heavier days on Behavior Acquisition and Behavior Reduction (the two largest areas), lighter days on the smaller content areas.
- Days 1–3
Data Collection & Graphing
Continuous/discontinuous measurement, graphing, IOA, reliability (17% of the exam). Try the free sampler after.
⏱️ 1.5 h/day
- Days 4–6
Behavior Assessment
Preference assessments, functional assessment, skill assessments (11%).
⏱️ 1.5 h/day
- Days 7–11
Behavior Acquisition (deep dive)
DTT, chaining, prompting hierarchies, shaping, generalization. This is 25% of the exam, so slow down here.
⏱️ 2 h/day
- Days 12–16
Behavior Reduction (deep dive)
Functions of behavior, antecedent interventions, differential reinforcement, extinction, punishment (19%).
⏱️ 2 h/day
- Days 17–19
Documentation & Reporting
Session notes, data integrity, professional communication (13%).
⏱️ 1 h/day
- Days 20–22
- Days 23–25
Work the question bank
Drill the topic question sets in the book; track weak areas in a notebook. (Start with the free sampler.)
⏱️ 45 min/day
- Days 26–28
Full practice exams
Take the 3 full 85-question exams in the book on separate days. Time them. Review every wrong answer.
⏱️ 2 h/day
- Day 29
Drill weak areas
Re-read the guides for the domains you got wrong and redo those questions. No new topics today.
⏱️ 2 h
- Day 30
Tips that matter more than the plan
- Active recall > passive reading. Every study session, end with a quiz on what you just read.
- Track your wrong answers in a notebook with the competency code and why you got it wrong. Re-quiz those competencies in week 4.
- Time your full exams. 90 minutes for 85 questions = ~64 seconds per question. Practice that pacing.
- Skip then return on the real exam. Don't burn 5 minutes on one question.