In 2025, 51% of first-time BCBA candidates passed the exam. That is down from 60% in 2021, and it means roughly half of everyone sitting the exam for the first time does not pass it.
The retake numbers are harder still. Only 23% of retake candidates passed in 2025, so a first attempt matters far more than most candidates realise going in.
This guide covers what the published data shows, what the exam actually involves, what the North Carolina picture looks like, and what changes in 2027.
BCBA Pass Rates by Year
These are the BACB’s published figures for first-time and retake candidates.
Year | First-time candidates | First-time pass rate | Retake candidates | Retake pass rate |
2021 | 12,107 | 60% | 11,301 | 28% |
2022 | 7,179 | 55% | 8,575 | 24% |
2023 | 8,255 | 56% | 10,450 | 23% |
2024 | 9,911 | 54% | 11,780 | 25% |
2025 | 9,955 | 51% | 13,196 | 23% |
Two things stand out. The first-time rate has declined steadily, by nine percentage points across five years. And in every year shown, more candidates sat retakes than sat the exam for the first time, with retake numbers growing faster than first-time numbers.
The BACB has not published an explanation for the trend, so treat any confident account of why it is happening with scepticism.
Why the Retake Figure Matters Most
The gap between a 51% first-time rate and a 23% retake rate is the single most useful number for anyone preparing.
It means a candidate who fails once is, as a group, less than half as likely to pass on the next attempt as a first-timer. That runs against intuition, since you would expect a second attempt to go better with the experience of having sat it.
The practical implication is straightforward. Treat the first attempt as the one that counts and sit it only when you are genuinely ready, rather than booking early with the idea that you can retake it. A delayed first attempt costs you weeks. A failed one puts you into a group where the odds are considerably worse.
What the Exam Involves
The BCBA exam is computer-based and delivered in person at Pearson VUE test centres and on US military bases.
- 185 multiple-choice questions, each with four options and one correct answer
- Four hours to complete it
- Based on the BCBA Test Content Outline, 6th edition
Scoring is less transparent than many candidates expect. The passing score is set using the modified Angoff method by a panel of BACB-certified subject matter experts and approved by the BACB Board of Directors. Because different forms vary slightly in difficulty, scores are equated and reported as scaled scores rather than raw marks.
If you pass, you are told only that you passed. No score, no breakdown. If you do not pass, you receive a report showing the percentage correct and the number of questions in each primary content area, which is the only diagnostic information available. The raw number of correct answers is never reported.
That asymmetry is worth knowing in advance, because candidates who pass often want to know by how much, and the answer is that nobody will tell them.
The North Carolina Picture
The BACB publishes pass rates broken down by university training program, which is where state-level questions usually get answered. For North Carolina, the answer is that there is very little data.
In the 2025 program report, the most recent published, only one North Carolina program appears: the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Psychology ABA concentration, an on-campus program, with a 100% pass rate from six first-time candidates.
Treat that figure carefully. Programs with fewer than six first-time candidates in a year are excluded from the report entirely, and six is the bare minimum. At that sample size, one additional pass or fail moves the percentage by roughly 17 points, so the number describes six specific people rather than the quality of a program.
The wider point is that most North Carolina candidates come through programs too small to be reported, or through online programs based elsewhere. If you are choosing a program in this state, published pass rates will not settle the question for you. Supervision quality and fieldwork support are more useful things to ask about, and our teams across North Carolina see the difference those make.
Accreditation and Verified Course Sequences Are Not the Same Thing
This trips up a lot of candidates, and plenty of published advice gets it wrong.
ABAI accreditation comes from the Accreditation Board of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. It involves a comprehensive self-study and a site visit by trained peers, assessing curriculum, outcomes, administration, resources, and public disclosure. It is a judgement about quality and rigour.
A Verified Course Sequence confirms that an institution teaches the coursework required for a BACB credential. In ABAI’s own words, it “does not constitute program accreditation, by design.” It tells you the boxes are covered. It tells you nothing about how well.
Both can get you to the exam. Only one is a statement about program quality. If a program advertises itself as “BACB accredited,” that phrase does not describe anything that exists, and it is reasonable to ask what they actually mean.
What Changes in 2027
The BACB is revising BCBA requirements with effect from 1 January 2027. The changes cover degree requirements, coursework, supervised fieldwork, continuing education and ongoing supervision. Pathways 3 and 4 are being discontinued.
If you are partway through a qualification route, check the current BCBA handbook against the pathway you started on rather than relying on what a program told you when you enrolled. Candidates on a discontinued pathway need to know now, not when they apply.
Conclusion
Given what the retake data shows, preparation is worth over-investing in.
Work from the 6th edition Test Content Outline directly, section by section, rather than from a prep course’s own structure. The outline is what the exam is built from, and it is the only authoritative map of what can appear.
Use practice questions to find gaps rather than to build confidence. A score that feels reassuring on a practice set is less informative than the list of content areas you keep getting wrong.
Fieldwork quality matters here too. Candidates who have genuinely applied the concepts, run assessments, written programs, adjusted them from data, tend to find the scenario-based questions far more tractable than candidates whose hours were technically accrued but thinly supervised. If you are still choosing where to do your fieldwork, that is worth weighting heavily, and it is something to ask about directly when you look at open roles.
If you are earlier in the path, our guides to RBT jobs in North Carolina and ABA therapist salary cover the steps before this one, and BCBA salary in North Carolina covers what comes after.
What the Numbers Add Up To
The BCBA exam is getting harder to pass on a first attempt, or at least fewer people are passing it, and the data does not tell us which. What the data does tell us clearly is that first attempts matter disproportionately, that published program pass rates are too thin to guide a decision in North Carolina, and that accreditation and course verification are different things worth distinguishing. For anyone currently on a pathway, the 2027 requirement changes are the next thing to check.
Connect n Care ABA works with families across North Carolina through in-home ABA therapy, center-based ABA therapy, and school-based ABA therapy, and our licensed behavior analysts supervise staff working toward certification.
To ask about fieldwork and supervision with our teams, get in touch.
SOURCES:
- https://bacb.com/examination-information/
- https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/bcba-pass-rates
- https://accreditation.abainternational.org/faqs.aspx
- https://www.bacb.com/upcoming-changes/
- https://www.bacb.com/bcba/
- https://abainternational.org/media/204426/abai-bacb_joint_vcs_announcement-20230109.pdf
