Eat, Sleep, Study for the BCBA Exam

Ever feel like no one understands how the studying journey feels? We at Rogue get that. Each of us represent a different type of lifestyle and struggle. Working moms, full time teachers, therapists, repeat testers, first time testers, etc. We understand life is not simple, studying is not just going to the library like it used to be in college. I want to give you my top 3 studying tips ofwhat worked for me. Some background on what my studying semester looked like: I was a full time life-skills teacher, part time ABA therapist, and part time respite provider. I was also planning a wedding, looking for a house, packing to move across the state, and searching for a new job.

I so understand busy lives and the struggle of balancing life and prepping for the exam. Choosing to make sacrifices so that this would be (hopefully) a one and done was tough. It meant I did not see many of my friends outside of work. It meant I basically ate, worked, and studied with some small amounts of sleep thrown in the mix. But in the end, it was so SO worth it. I complied my top 3 tips for studying in this list.

1) Zoom. Zoom all the time. Everywhere. Anywhere. Whenever you can. I zoomed with the

free groups on my way home from work on the weekends. Zooms started as soon as my

students were on the bus. I zoomed as soon as I got home. Calls to study members in the
30 minutes between two jobs. I zoomed with my small study group til late at night and all day on the

weekends. I even attended a morning zoom on the way to work. Join our Facebook group
to find these zooms.

2) Find the tiny amounts of free time and study. Run through terms in your head. Break

down contingencies happening at work on your way home. I once called a mock exam

author to go over one of the questions on his mock exam on my lunch break. And if

you’re in public schools, you know that lunch breaks are usually 5 minutes before you’re

called on the radio to come deal with one of your students.

3) Write questions. Do it. It’s hard. It’s scary. BUT, if you can write a question, defend the

reasoning behind your answer, and articulate why it’s correct, you KNOW the material.

Applying the terms to real life can be hard. Especially for the more abstract less used in

daily life terms.  Write questions over those. Buy the review of questions product that Rogue offers.
Find a friend. Hold a competition between yourselves. Loser has to do something silly.
Find a way to make it a game and less scary. Send your questions to study partners before
posting them on the Facebook board. But most importantly, write questions!

Those are the three major pieces of advice I can give you heading into the first days of this

testing cycle. Nothing worth having is easy. Hit the studying hard. You can do it.

All the best,

Corrie Mercer