RBT exam · BACB results + our data
Is the RBT exam hard?
For most people, no. Three out of four first-time test takers passed in 2025, by the BACB's count. But the pass rate has slipped. In 2021, 83% passed on the first try. And a second try goes worse: only 38% of retakes passed in 2025.
Data Collection and Graphing
You time how long a learner takes to start cleaning up after your instruction. What are you measuring?
Latency is the time from an instruction to the start of the behavior.So treat your first attempt as the one that counts. Below are five years of results, what the passing score is (and isn't), and which questions trip people up, from the 300 practice questions we wrote for the exam.
Five years of RBT exam results
| Year | First-time test takers | Passed the first time | Retakes that passed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 43,452 | 83% | 53% |
| 2022 | 58,322 | 77% | 44% |
| 2023 | 73,690 | 74% | 41% |
| 2024 | 90,741 | 73% | 36% |
| 2025 | 109,341 | 75% | 38% |
From the BACB's Historical RBT Examination Results, checked November 13, 2026.
Two and a half times as many people took the exam for the first time in 2025 as in 2021. The first-time pass rate slid from 83% to 73% over those years, then came back up a bit. In 2025, one in four failed: about 27,000 people. The table doesn't say why the rate fell, and we won't guess.
One caveat. Every number above is from the old exam. Since January 1, 2026, the test follows the RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.), and the BACB's table stops at 2025. Nobody can tell you the pass rate on the new outline yet.
What score do you need to pass?
The BACB doesn't publish one. The RBT exam is pass/fail, you get your result at the test center, and the passing score is set with what the BACB calls the modified Angoff method (RBT Handbook). If a site gives you an exact number of questions to get right, it isn't from the handbook.
What the handbook does say:
- 85 questions, and 75 of them are scored. The other 10 don't count. The handbook doesn't say which ones, so answer every question like it counts.
- Four options per question, one right answer.
- 90 minutes. That's a little over a minute per question, so you can't think through every one for long.
- In person, at a Pearson VUE test center, for $45 per appointment.
If you fail
You can try again. You get up to 8 attempts in the 12 months after your application is approved, at least 7 days apart. Each try is another $45 to Pearson VUE. A retake application is free for now (RBT Handbook).
The trouble is the odds. Retakes passed at about half the first-timers' rate in 2025, 38% against 75%. Part of that may be who retakes: people the material already tripped once. Still, it's the best reason we know to wait until you're ready. You have a year from approval to sit the exam, so there's room for an extra week of practice.
Where the questions get hard
We mark each of our practice questions easy, medium or hard when we write it. That's our judgment, not the BACB's. But it shows where we think the traps are. Behavior reduction has the most hard questions, 14 of 56. Data collection and graphing comes next.
| Content area | Scored questions on the exam | Our questions | Marked hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behavior Reduction | 14 | 56 | 14 (25%) |
| Data Collection and Graphing | 13 | 52 | 11 (21%) |
| Behavior Assessment | 8 | 32 | 6 (19%) |
| Ethics | 11 | 44 | 8 (18%) |
| Documentation and Reporting | 10 | 40 | 6 (15%) |
| Behavior Acquisition | 19 | 76 | 10 (13%) |
Scored questions per area from the RBT Test Content Outline (3rd ed.). Our questions counted from the RBT class on November 14, 2026.
Our hard ones are rarely about a fact you've never heard. They're about two answers that both sound right. Was it positive or negative punishment? Is it extinction or time-based reinforcement? Is the gap between two responses timed from the end of one, or the start? You know both words. The question is whether you can tell them apart in a short story about a learner, in about a minute. To check the words first, run through our ABA terms flashcards.
Two hard ones to try
Both come from our bank and don't appear on our other pages. Pick an answer before you open it.
1. Behavior Reduction
After grabbing, a favorite game is removed and grabbing decreases. A coworker calls this positive punishment because it helps. What is the correct description?
- Negative punishment: something pleasant was removed.
- Positive punishment: the outcome was helpful.
- Positive punishment: something pleasant was removed.
- Negative punishment: the outcome was helpful.
Show the answer
Negative punishment removes something pleasant after behavior, and the behavior decreases. The helpful outcome does not make it positive punishment.
2. Data Collection and Graphing
Across 10 tasks, a learner pushes materials 6 times during 4 tasks. What percentage of task opportunities included pushing?
- 6% of opportunities
- 4% of opportunities
- 40% of opportunities
- 60% of opportunities
Show the answer
40% of opportunities is correct: 4 tasks with pushing ÷ 10 tasks × 100 = 40%. Count opportunities with pushing, not individual pushes.
Is it hard for you? Find out in 25 questions
The pass rate is everyone's. Yours depends on which areas you know. Our free check is 25 questions from all six content areas, in about the exam's proportions. You see the why after each answer, and at the end your score by area, weakest first. No sign-up. At the exam's pace it takes under half an hour.
If you miss most of an area, learn it before you drill it. Lesson 1, ABCs and schedules, plays free on the class page and takes about 4 minutes. For the order to study the rest in, see our RBT study guide.