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Beacon BCBA Prep

BCBA exam prep

Am I ready?

It’s the question every BCBA candidate turns over the night before the exam, and a percent-correct never really answers it. Beacon answers it with data: a readiness score built from freshly generated 185-item mock exams, each one weighted to the BACB's 6th-edition Test Content Outline. Free to start.

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See your baseline before you pay anything.

A behavior technician studying for the BCBA exam at a bright kitchen table, writing notes beside an open laptop
Index cards and study notes spread across a bright desk beside a laptop

Built for the RBTs and BTs studying their way to BCBA

Adaptive BCBA prep, built on questions we make ourselves.

Most BCBA prep hands you a fixed set of questions and a raw percent-correct, so you end up memorizing the same few mocks and still guessing whether you are ready on exam day. Beacon builds a readiness score from freshly generated mocks, so it can do the one thing a percent-correct cannot: tell you where you actually stand.

Original questions
Written in-house from scratch, never scraped or recycled from real exams.
Expert-reviewed
Every item is reviewed by credentialed behavior analysts before it ships.
Mapped to the 6th-ed TCO
Tagged and weighted to the BACB Test Content Outline, domain by domain.
Free to start
Run a diagnostic and see your baseline before you pay anything.
Unlimited retakes
Sit as many fresh mock exams as you need, at no extra cost.
A rationale on every item
Every question explains why the right answer is right, so practice teaches instead of just testing.

See how the bank becomes a study system

Sample question

Answer one the way you would on exam day, then see how Beacon responds.

A learner reliably requests a preferred item only after an adult delivers the vocal prompt “What do you want?” The behavior analyst wants the request to come under the control of the natural motivating operation instead of the adult’s prompt. Which procedure most directly accomplishes this?

Start free. Upgrade when you’re ready.

See your baseline before you pay anything. When your prep asks for more, pick the plan that fits your stage, monthly or annual, and cancel anytime. Annual billing saves two months.

  • Free

    Free

    See your baseline and get a real taste.

  • Exam Prep

    from $16/mo

    Unlimited daily study, review, and drills.

  • Exam Ready

    from $24/mo

    Everything you need to walk in ready.

  • Board Certified

    from $41/mo

    The final-stretch kit for exam week.

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See where you stand tonight.

Start free and get your baseline across every domain, before you pay anything.

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A fresh 185-item exam, assembled on the spot.

Every attempt draws a full-length mock live and weights it to the published 6th-edition TCO. When the exam never repeats, there is nothing to memorize, so a strong score reflects what you know rather than what you have seen before.

Retakes are unlimited and free, and a new draw waits behind each one. You run out of study time long before you run out of exams.

How a mock gets assembled

Beacon app mock exams screen showing a 185-item exam weighted to the TCO blueprint

Where you actually stand.

A percent-correct tells you what you got on the questions you happened to see. A readiness score tells you what to do next: which domains are solid, which one is exposed, and whether it’s safe to book the exam.

The Home screen leads with that signal, exam-ready or not, and the days left until your test, so the one number you check each morning is the one that actually predicts exam day.

How the score is calculated

Beacon app home screen showing an exam-ready readiness signal and the days until the exam

A path built around your gaps.

See exactly where you are and what comes next. Your limited study time is pointed at the domains that actually move your score, not spread evenly across material you already know.

The plan reorders itself as you go, so the next thing you open is always the thing most worth your time.

Walk through each step

Beacon app journey screen showing an adaptive path through the domains

Rate your confidence, not just your answer.

Every question asks how sure you are, guessing, fairly sure, or certain, so Beacon can tell real mastery from a lucky guess.

A right answer you were unsure of still counts as a gap, and your plan points straight at it.

Beacon app practice screen showing a question with a confidence check

The terms you are about to forget, resurfaced.

Short, timed concept sprints bring back definitions and terms right before they slip, so the fundamentals stick without endless re-reading.

Beacon app concepts screen showing a timed flashcard review
A candidate jumping up from her laptop in a bright living room with both fists raised, celebrating a passing result
Coworkers in a bright staff room applauding and hugging a colleague celebrating her news

Pass day

Then comes the morning it pays off.

The 2 a.m. flashcards, the mocks between sessions, the score inching up week after week: all of it points at one morning in a testing center. You walk in already knowing where you stand, because the number told you.

And when the result says pass, the letters are yours.

Start freeHow the readiness score works

Questions, answered

The exam is hard, expensive, and high-stakes. Here is what Beacon is, what it isn’t, and where we draw the line on what we’ll claim about the test itself.

How do I know the questions match the real exam?
Every question is original, written and reviewed by credentialed behavior analysts, then mapped to the published BACB 6th-edition Test Content Outline (TCO). We don't scrape or recycle real exam items; the goal is questions that test the same concepts, at the same depth, as the domains the BACB actually publishes. You can see the source outline anytime at bacb.com.
What happens if I fail the exam?
You keep going. On a paid plan you can sit freshly assembled mock exams as many times as you need, with unlimited free retakes and no per-attempt charge, and your readiness score keeps pointing you at the domains that still need work, so your next attempt is better prepared than your last. Start free first to see exactly where you stand.
How does pricing work?
Beacon starts free: run a diagnostic and see your baseline before you pay anything. From there you subscribe to the plan that matches your stage, Exam Prep, Exam Ready, or Board Certified, billed monthly or annually, where annual saves two months, and you can cancel anytime. Paid plans start at $16 a month billed annually; see every plan and exactly what it includes on the pricing page.
How is a readiness score different from my percent correct?
Percent correct only tells you how you did on the questions you happened to see. Your readiness score weights performance across the TCO domains the way the real exam does, factors in how recently and consistently you've answered, and calibrates for confidence, so it estimates whether you're ready for the actual exam, not just how one quiz went.
Are the mock exams the same set of questions every time?
No. Each mock is freshly assembled the moment you start it: a new 185-item exam drawn from a large bank and weighted to match the real BACB 6th-edition TCO domain proportions. Because every attempt is different, retaking mocks measures real progress instead of memorized answers.
Is Beacon worth it compared to other BCBA prep?
Most prep hands you a fixed pile of content and still can't tell you when you're actually ready. Beacon is an adaptive system that estimates your readiness against the real exam blueprint, and it starts free, so you can judge the fit before paying. We won't quote competitor prices or features here; compare them directly and decide what fits your budget and study style.
How many questions are on the BCBA exam?
The BCBA exam has 185 multiple-choice questions: 175 are scored and 10 are unscored pilot items that don't count toward your result. Candidates are given four hours to complete it. Always confirm the current format against the BACB's official handbook at bacb.com.
How is the BCBA exam weighted?
The exam is built from the content domains published in the BACB's 6th-edition Test Content Outline, and each domain contributes a set number of questions to the total. Beacon's mock exams mirror those same domain proportions. The authoritative weighting is published by the BACB at bacb.com.
How long should I study for the BCBA exam?
There's no single right answer: study time reported by candidates commonly ranges from several weeks to a few months, depending on how recently you finished coursework, your fieldwork experience, and how much time you can give each week. Rather than chase a fixed number of hours, Beacon tracks your readiness score so you can study until you're actually prepared, not until a date on the calendar. Treat any specific hour count you see online as anecdotal, not a guarantee.
What is the BCBA exam pass rate?
The BACB publishes first-time and overall pass-rate data each year, broken down by training program, on its website. We don't restate a figure here because it changes annually and varies by program; see the current numbers directly at bacb.com.
What is the BCBA 6th-edition Test Content Outline?
The Test Content Outline (TCO) is the BACB's official blueprint for the exam: it lists the content domains and the specific tasks a candidate is expected to know, and it's the basis for how the exam is written and weighted. The 6th-edition TCO took effect for exams administered starting in January 2025 (the 5th-edition Task List governed exams from 2022 through 2024). You can download the current outline from bacb.com.
What score do I need to pass the BCBA exam?
The BCBA exam is scored on a scaled system, and the passing standard is set by the BACB through a formal standard-setting process; it is not a simple percentage like "70% correct." Your result is reported as pass or fail along with a scaled score. The official scoring details are published by the BACB at bacb.com.

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You don’t have to guess whether you’re ready.

Start free, see where you stand across every domain, and keep studying until the number says it's time. Upgrade to a plan when you want unlimited questions, full mock exams, and free retakes.

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