This BCBA cheat sheet distills the BACB 6th Edition Test Content Outline into a printable rundown of the concepts the four-hour exam tests hardest. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free BCBA toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
BCBA exam at a glance
- Questions: 185 multiple-choice (175 scored + 10 unscored pilot items)
- Time: 4 hours, computer-based at Pearson VUE
- Passing score: Scaled score of 400 on a 0–500 scale (modified-Angoff standard; raw score not reported)
- Cost: About $245 BACB application + $125 Pearson VUE appointment (retake application ~$140) — confirm current fees in the Handbook
What’s on the BCBA cheat sheet
- Behaviorism & Concepts (5% + 14%) — the seven dimensions of ABA, the four-cell contingency matrix, extinction, stimulus control, motivating operations, and the verbal operants.
- Measurement & Experimental Design (12% + 7%) — continuous vs. discontinuous measurement, interval-recording biases, IOA, and the single-case designs (reversal, multiple-baseline, multielement, changing-criterion).
- Behavior Assessment (13%) — the FBA sequence from indirect to descriptive to functional analysis, and the four functions of behavior with their FA test conditions.
- Change Procedures & Interventions (14% + 11%) — differential reinforcement, shaping, chaining, prompting and fading, token economies, and function-based, least-restrictive treatment selection.
- Ethics & Supervision (13% + 11%) — the four principles of the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, multiple relationships, scope of competence, and behavioral skills training (BST).
How to use it in your final week
- Burn the contingency matrix into memory first — decide reinforcement vs. punishment by whether behavior increased or decreased, then positive vs. negative by whether a stimulus was added or removed.
- Drill the four functions (attention, escape/avoidance, tangible, automatic) and match each to its FA test condition; most scenario items hinge on naming the function correctly.
- Review the single-case designs and their tells — irreversible or unethical-to-withdraw behavior points to a multiple-baseline design almost every time.
- Read the sheet the morning of the exam for a final pass on the verbal operants, measurement biases, and the four ethics principles, then pair it with a short timed set to keep four-hour pacing sharp.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your BCBA practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
BCBA cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the BCBA cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no account and no sign-up. It sits alongside Career Employer's free BCBA practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your entire prep stack costs nothing.
It condenses the highest-yield facts from the BACB 6th Edition Test Content Outline into a fast reference: the four-cell contingency matrix, measurement procedures and their biases, the single-case designs, the four functions of behavior, the four verbal operants, and the core ethics principles — grouped by the nine scored content areas.
It's built to the BACB 6th Edition Test Content Outline, which took effect for exams administered from January 1, 2025, and we review it against the current outline and Handbook. Fees and policies shift over time, so confirm exact numbers in the BACB Handbook before you apply.
No — the BCBA exam rewards applied judgment across scenarios, not rote recall, so the sheet is a review and final-week cram layer, not a full course. Use it to lock in the matrix, designs, and functions, then build readiness with timed practice questions.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page and the PDF opens instantly. Bookmark the page so you can pull the sheet back up during your final week before test day.
References
- 1.Behavior Analyst Certification Board. “BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.).” bacb.com, 2026. ↑
- 2.Behavior Analyst Certification Board. “BCBA Handbook.” bacb.com, 2026. ↑
- 3.Behavior Analyst Certification Board. “Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.” bacb.com, 2026. ↑
- 4.Behavior Analyst Certification Board. “BACB Certificant Annual Report Data (Examination Pass Rates).” bacb.com, 2026. ↑
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