How to Answer RBT Exam Questions in One Minute, Even If English Is Hard for You
ABA 4 Love Team6 min read
Many students know the content and still run out of time on the RBT exam. The problem is almost never what they know: it's that they take too long to recognize what they're being asked. If you learn to see the shape of each question, you know what to look for before reading the whole scenario, and that saves seconds on every one.
The exam in one line
The RBT exam has 85 four-option questions in 90 minutes: roughly one minute per question. Of those 85, 75 count toward your score and 10 are unscored pilot questions, and you don't know which ones, so it pays to answer them all equally well. The 90 minutes include reading the terms and conditions and the tutorial, and the exam is offered only in English (RBT Handbook, BACB).
With one minute per question, there's no time to read each scenario twice or to translate it word for word. You need a method.
Read from the bottom up
The method has 5 steps and works for every question. Instead of starting with the scenario, you start at the end:
- Look at the options without reading them (5 seconds). Just their shape: are they numbers, short names, actions? They already tell you what type of question it is.
- Read the last sentence (5 seconds). That's where the actual question is and, often, a word in CAPITAL LETTERS.
- Read the scenario to find, not to translate (30 seconds). Don't translate everything: look only for what that type of question needs.
- Say the answer in your own language (5 seconds), in your head, before going back to the options.
- Go back to the options and rule them out (15 seconds). If two are left, look for the word that separates them.
If you're still unsure after that, pick the best one and move on. No question is worth more than another, so don't give three minutes to a single one.
The first two steps, in detail
Step 1: the shape of the options
Before you read a single word of the scenario, the shape of the options already tells you what you'll be asked.
| If the options are… | They look like | You're asked to… |
|---|---|---|
| Numbers | 10% · 20% · 30% | Calculate |
| One to three words | DRO · DRA · NCR | Name the concept |
| Phrases starting with a verb | Tell… · Ask… · Document… | Say what the RBT should do |
| Long scenes | An RBT asks… | Choose the example |
| Arrows | A → B → C | Put the steps in order |
| Yes or no | Yes, because… | Give a verdict with its reason |
| Quotation marks | “…” | Pick the best note or statement |
| Graphs | Four graphs | Read a graph or choose the correct one |
Step 2: the word in capital letters
It's in the last sentence, and it changes what you need to look for.
| Word | What it's telling you |
|---|---|
| BEST · MOST | Several sound right: choose the one that meets everything the scenario asks for. |
| FIRST | Several may be correct, but the order matters. Safety comes first. |
| NEXT | You're at an exact point in a procedure: what just happened? |
| PRIMARY | The main reason or risk, not just anything that's true. |
| NOT · LEAST · AVOID | Three options are correct: you're looking for the one that doesn't belong. |
If you see NOT, LEAST, or AVOID, this step overrides everything else. In those questions the signal isn't in the options but in the last sentence. Read it twice.
The 6 question families
Almost every question on the exam falls into one of these six families. Each one is recognized by its options and has a trap that keeps coming up.
| Family | How you recognize it | What you look for in the scenario | The typical trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. What's it called? | One- to three-word options: DRO, DRA, NCR | What happened afterward and whether the behavior went up or down | The name that “sounds” right and look-alike pairs: DRA and DRI, shaping and chaining, MO and SD |
| 2. What does the RBT do? | Phrases that start with a verb: Tell, Document, Ask | Whether there's danger, what the plan says, and who to notify | Changing the plan “because it works,” doing it and reporting afterward, explaining it to the family, or waiting for the next meeting |
| 3. Which one is the example? | Long scenes or statements that start with The… | The parts of the concept the question names | The scene that meets everything except one detail |
| 4. What comes next? | Steps of a technique, arrows, or methods | Where you are in the procedure and which rule applies | Getting ahead of the criterion and confusing nearly identical formats, like MSW and MSWO |
| 5. Numbers and graphs | Numbers or graphs | The data, the unit, and the phase | Using the count as a rate, giving the total instead of the mean, or reading the wrong phase |
| 6. The read-it-twice ones | Quotation marks, Yes / No, or the word NOT | What was observed, the yes or the no, and the one that doesn't belong | Marking the first correct option in a NOT question, or getting the verdict right with the wrong reason |
For family 2 questions, it helps to keep one sentence in mind: implement as written, document objectively, report promptly, and ask for direction. Almost every wrong option breaks one of those four things.
If English isn't your first language
The method works especially well if English isn't your first language, because it cuts down what you have to translate:
- You can see the shape of the options without translating anything.
- Read the scenario to find, not to translate: you already know what you're looking for.
- If you don't understand a word, keep going. Stopping to translate it uses up your minute.
- Say the answer in your own language before going back to the options.
Also learn the small words that change the answer: before, after, until, within, only, instead, already, withhold, increases, decreases. If you recognize them at a glance, you don't have to translate the whole sentence.
And forget two well-known tricks: “the longest one is correct” and “if it says always or never, it's false.” They aren't reliable.
How to practice this week
A method only works if you repeat it until it comes naturally. Try this with your practice questions:
- Before answering each question, say which family it belongs to.
- Practice with mixed questions, not by topic: on the exam, nobody tells you which family each one belongs to.
- Time yourself: one minute per question.
- When you get one wrong, find the step of the flow where you went wrong, not just what the right answer was.
Before you answer, ask yourself: what shape is it?
If you want to practice with exam-style questions, go to Trainer4Love. And if you'd rather review with us, join ABA 4 Love's live review sessions.
This article is ABA 4 Love study material, not official BACB material. Always check the current version of the RBT Handbook at bacb.com.
