BCBA Exam Pass Rates: 51% First Time, 23% on Retakes (2025)

In 2025, 51% of first-time BCBA exam candidates passed, and 23% of retake candidates passed, according to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). These are BACB's latest full-year figures (there's no 2026 figure yet), and its newest pass rates by university program cover 2024.

By the Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team · Last verified September 17, 2026

BCBA exam results, 2020–2025

Sources: BACB Annual Data Report (2020–2025) and BACB Examination Information, "Historical BCBA Examination Results" (2021–2025).

First time means taking the BCBA exam for the first time, not the first sitting of a new calendar year. Retakes means testing after an earlier unsuccessful attempt. BACB doesn't say whether that was someone's second attempt or their eighth. These are BACB's overall figures, not a U.S.-only or state-level breakdown. Its published tables do not explain how repeat sittings within a year are deduplicated, so these reported counts do not establish a unique-person total or an eventual-success rate.

What stands out. The 2025 first-time rate is the lowest in these six years: 3 percentage points below 2024 and 15 below 2020. It wasn't a straight slide, though. The first-time rate ticked up from 55% to 56% in 2023, and the retake rate rose from 23% to 25% in 2024 before dropping back to 23%.

The reported retake count has grown fast. It more than doubled from 2020 to 2025 (6,166 to 13,196), and in 2025 it made up about 57% of the combined first-time and retake counts. By our math, roughly 4,900 first-time candidates didn't pass in 2025: 9,955 × (1 − 0.51) = 4,877.95 before rounding. This is an estimate from BACB's rounded rate, not a published count of unsuccessful candidates.

2025 was also the first full year of the exam based on the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.). The BACB pages we checked don't attribute the drop to that change or to anything else. BACB's transition guidance confirms the January 1, 2025 start date.

Jump to: Look up a program's pass rate · Didn't pass? Start here · Check a number you saw

BCBA pass rates by university program (2024)

BACB's newest program report covers first-time BCBA exam results for 2024, with some combined 2023–2024 rows. It lists 195 program entries, with pass rates from 0% to 100%. But 134 of those entries had fewer than 20 first-time candidates, so read the candidate count before the percentage.

BACB suggests reading each program's rate on its own, as a rough chance of passing on the first attempt: a 60% rate is about 3 in 5. It advises against comparing a program's rate with the overall pass rate, because a few very large programs shape the overall figure (BACB, University Examination Pass Rates). That is BACB's interpretation guidance, not a personalized prediction or a guarantee that a future cohort will repeat the result.

How to read the table

• First-time candidates: people from that program who took the exam for the first time in the period shown. Rows marked \* combine 2023 and 2024, because the program had too few candidates in a single year. Youngstown's period is marked † because the two versions of BACB's table disagree.
• Pass rate: BACB's published figure, shown as a whole percent. We preserve it rather than reconstructing an exact passing count.
• Approx. 95% Wilson interval (our calc): a statistical illustration of how much uncertainty a small group leaves under a simple binomial model. We use the published rate and candidate count, so these intervals are approximate; BACB does not publish them. A 100% result from 6 candidates gives an interval of about 61%–100% under this model, not a forecast for the next year.

Who isn't in the table

Programs with fewer than 6 first-time candidates aren't listed, unless BACB could combine two years of candidates (the rows marked \*). A missing program isn't a 0%. It just wasn't reported. For the coursework pathway, BACB generally excludes candidates who used multiple verified course sequences; its FAQ makes an exception for combined 4th- and 5th-edition VCS coursework. And a program's row can include people who finished the program in an earlier year but first tested in the reporting year. BACB doesn't break these data out by graduation year or content area (BACB faculty FAQ).

A program's row in a past report also doesn't confirm that its coursework meets the requirements in place when you apply, including the BCBA requirements that change on January 1, 2027.

2024 program register

Castleport's transcription of BACB's 2024 BCBA program report (updated December 2025), sorted by first-time candidates, largest first—not by program quality. Columns marked “our calc” are our arithmetic, not BACB figures. Institution, program, identifier, and format follow BACB's historical listings; they are not a check of each program's current offerings.

Use your browser's Find command to search an institution or VCS number. VCS means verified course sequence; ABAI is the Association for Behavior Analysis International. All 195 entries are below.

\* 2023 and 2024 first-time candidates combined because of low volume (BACB 2024 report). † The source's two presentations disagree about the period. ‡ Interval not calculated; the published count and rate are retained.

Data notes

• Youngstown State University (51346) carries an asterisk in BACB's rate-sorted table (p. 4) but not in its alphabetical table (p. 27). Both show 8 candidates and 75%. We retain those figures, leave the period unresolved, and exclude the row from single-year calculations. The register contains 173 unambiguously single-year entries, 21 combined-year entries, and this one conflicting-period entry.
• BACB lists University of North Texas's on-campus M.S. in Behavior Analysis at 77% of 17 candidates. An exact passing count is not supplied. Thirteen out of 17 is about 76.47%; the report does not explain the rounding behind 77%. We preserve 17 and 77% without substituting 13 passes, and do not calculate a Wilson interval for that row.
• BACB's program-report index still linked 2024 as its newest BCBA report when checked on September 17, 2026.

Open BACB's 2024 program report (PDF) · See all of BACB's program reports

How we calculated the intervals and averages

The interval column uses the NIST Wilson formula with a 95% confidence level, the published percentage divided by 100, and the reported candidate count. Endpoints are rounded to the nearest whole percent. We do not turn rounded percentages into exact numbers of passes.

The binomial model assumes independent outcomes with one common underlying pass probability. These administrative cohorts are not established random samples of future candidates. The intervals illustrate sample-size uncertainty under that model; they do not capture changes in admissions, instruction, fieldwork, or candidate mix, and they are not individual odds or next-year prediction intervals.

For a candidate-weighted mean of the published rates, we multiply each program's reported rate by its candidate count, add those products, and divide by the combined candidate count. Because the input rates are rounded, this is an approximation—not a BACB-published combined pass rate. Annual analyses exclude the combined-year rows and Youngstown's conflicting-period row.

Why weighting matters. In a hypothetical example, one program has 6 passes out of 6 and another has 60 out of 100. Their simple average is (100% + 60%) ÷ 2 = 80%, but the combined result is 66 ÷ 106 = 62.3%. An average of program percentages answers a different question from a percentage of candidates.

The nine biggest programs

Nine program entries had 100 or more first-time candidates in 2024. Together they account for about 60% of the single-year candidates in the report, and their rates ranged from 42% to 71%. With groups this large, the approximate Wilson intervals are narrower—about 3 to 9 percentage points either side—but that does not establish how stable their future results will be.

What the full 2024 report shows (our analysis)

• The 173 unambiguously single-year entries cover 8,235 first-time candidates, about 83% of the 9,911 BACB reported overall for 2024. Their candidate-weighted mean published rate is about 54%, numerically the same after rounding as BACB's overall figure. This is a coverage calculation, not a program-quality comparison.
• The five largest entries account for about half of those candidates (4,227), with a candidate-weighted mean published rate near 52%. The other 168 single-year entries come to about 56% by the same method.
• A simple average of all 195 program rates is about 59%, and the middle entry is also 59%. Unlike a candidate-weighted rate, this simple average gives a 6-person program the same weight as a 1,259-person program. This descriptive average also mixes reporting periods; it is not an annual candidate pass rate. Most entries are small, while most candidates come from a few large programs. That's the concentration BACB warns about.

Candidate-weighted mean published rate by format (single-year entries, our calc)

This describes the 2024 data. It doesn't show that format causes the difference. The online group is dominated by a handful of very large programs; admissions, fieldwork support, and candidate mix are not controlled in this calculation. The 20 single-year entries listed as ABAI Accredited or Recognized had 317 candidates and a candidate-weighted mean published rate near 69%. The same caution applies.

Want the research view? Dubuque and Kazemi (2022) studied first-time pass rates across course sequences from 2013 to 2020, including how concentrated candidates were and differences by instruction format.

Did program pass rates go up or down from 2023 to 2024?

Mostly down among the entries we could match by VCS number. Of the 39 matched programs with at least 20 first-time candidates in both years, 27 fell, 11 rose, and 1 held steady. None of the nine programs with 100-plus candidates in both years improved. Across these 39 programs, the candidate-weighted mean published rate slipped from about 55% to about 53%, close numerically to the overall move from 56% to 54%. A further Chicago School listing is retained in the table but excluded from those paired calculations because its degree label changes without a numeric identifier confirming continuity.

Thirteen of the 39 moved 10 points or more, and all but one of those had fewer than 100 candidates in at least one year. One year is a snapshot. Look at multiple reports with the same program identifier and period definition before interpreting a pattern.

Sources: BACB 2023 program report (updated August 2024) and BACB 2024 program report (updated December 2025). Both years used the 5th-edition exam; the 5th-edition start date and January 1, 2025 switch to the 6th edition rule out that later edition change as an explanation for these 2023–2024 moves. We matched numeric VCS identifiers, including the explicit old/new identifier pairs in the 2023 report, and noted listing changes. Change is the 2024 rate minus the 2023 rate, in percentage points. “Not paired” does not mean no change; it means continuity was not established from these reports.

What a BCBA pass rate can and can't tell you

A pass rate describes one group's result in one reporting period. It can show how a program's recent candidates did and how published results have changed. It can't tell you your own odds.

• Retake rates describe a different group. Everyone in the retake count has already missed the passing standard at least once, and some have missed it several times. A 23% retake rate doesn't mean one failed attempt cuts your personal chance to 23%.
• Overall and program rates aren't a matched pair. BACB advises against comparing them because a few large programs shape the overall figure.
• Program reports stop at the first attempt. BACB publishes first-attempt results by program, not how many of a program's graduates eventually certify.
• The latest available BCBA program report still predates the 6th-edition exam that began January 1, 2025.

Why did the BCBA pass rate drop in 2025?

The BACB sources checked for this page do not explain the decline. Here's what the numbers do show. The first-time group was about the same size as in 2024 (9,955 vs. 9,911), and the rate still fell 3 points. The slide also didn't start in 2025: the first-time rate was 66% in 2020 and has been in the 50s since 2022.

2025 is also when the exam switched outlines. BACB says the exam has been based on the 6th-edition outline since January 1, 2025, and that no changes to the exam or outline are currently planned. The eligibility changes coming January 1, 2027, do not themselves introduce a new exam edition (BACB 2027 transition guidance, p. 4). Timing alone doesn't prove the new outline caused the drop.

A 2025 program report could help show whether the drop was broad or concentrated among the programs it covers; even that would not establish a cause. BACB's index did not list one when checked. The available tables do not support a single explanation, so we aren't offering one.

How 2025 compares with earlier years

The 2014–2019 summaries below cover candidates attributed to verified course sequences, rather than exactly the same population as the later overall tables. Still, 51% is below every one of these historical percentages. That does not establish an all-time low across a single consistent dataset.

Sources: BACB, BCBA Examination Pass Rates for Verified Course Sequences 2014–2018, Summary Statistics, p. 1; and BACB's 2015–2019 report, Summary Statistics, p. 1 (2019: 6,878 candidates; 63%).

What score do you need to pass the BCBA exam?

BACB doesn't publish a fixed percentage. A panel of BACB-certified subject matter experts sets the passing score for each base exam form using the modified Angoff method, and BACB's Board of Directors approves it. BACB uses several exam forms and statistically equates them, so the number of correct answers needed can vary by form. You're measured against that standard, not against the other people testing (BACB, Examination Scoring).

So a "76%" target isn't a BACB standard, and a 51% pass rate doesn't mean you need 51% correct. BACB's scoring information doesn't state a percentage. The exam has 185 questions in 4 hours: 175 scored and 10 unscored pilot questions (BCBA Test Content Outline, p. 1).

If you don't pass, your score report shows the percentage of questions you answered correctly and the number of questions in each content area—not an overall percentage correct. If you pass, you get a pass notice only (BACB scoring FAQ).

What to do with these numbers

If you didn't pass

The 23% retake rate is a group result that mixes second attempts with later ones. It isn't your forecast. Here's what the rules allow:

• Time and attempts. If you are in a BACB jurisdiction, you have two years from the date your application is approved to pass, and you can test up to 8 times in that window, at least 30 days apart. Your BACB account shows your own testing deadlines (BCBA Handbook, p. 31). Even at the minimum spacing, 8 attempts span at least 210 days from first to last (our arithmetic: 7 gaps × 30 days).
• Exam version. Each appointment uses the exam version in effect when you schedule it (BCBA Handbook, p. ii). The current blueprint is the 6th edition; this rule does not mean choosing an older edition from the year you started studying.
• Your score report. Use it as a starting point, not a diagnosis. BACB notes that each task has relatively few questions, so a low area may not reflect what you know. Studying only those areas can cost you points elsewhere. Review all the content (BACB scoring FAQ).

For the full retake process, read the Examination section of the BCBA Handbook.

If you're preparing for a first attempt

Treat 51% as context, not a target score. Build your review around the BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.): 104 tasks across nine domains, with 175 scored questions. Our BCBA exam prep guide and 6th-edition task list checklist walk through both.

If you're choosing or checking a program

1. Find the exact row. Some schools have more than one entry. Match the program name and ID, not just the school.
2. Read the candidate count, reporting period, and interval limits before the percentage.
3. Look for a second year in the 2023-to-2024 table, then ask the program for its first-time rates and candidate counts in BACB's last three reports.
4. Check eligibility separately. Confirm the program's coursework fits the rules in place when you'll apply, including the 2027 changes. Our BCBA exam requirements guide covers them.

BCBA vs. BCaBA vs. RBT pass rates (2025)

The BCBA had the lowest first-time and retake pass rates of BACB's three exams in 2025.

Source: BACB Examination Information. These are different exams for different roles and education levels, taken by different groups. The table compares outcomes, not difficulty.

More on the other two: BCaBA exam prep · RBT exam prep · RBT vs. BCaBA vs. BCBA

Check a BCBA pass-rate number you saw

Run any number through these six checks:

1. Is it the BCBA? BCaBA and RBT are different exams.
2. Which exam year? An article's date isn't the data year.
3. Which group? First-time, retake, and one program's first-time candidates are three different things.
4. What does the count represent? Find the candidate count and its definition. A rounded rate doesn't give an exact number of passes.
5. Which program and period? Match the program ID, and watch for two-year rows.
6. What is it being used to claim? A group result isn't your odds, an eventual-certification rate, proof of a cause, or proof that a program meets current requirements.

Then find it below.

BCBA pass rate FAQ

Do retake counts include the same person more than once?

BACB doesn't say. Its tables report "candidates tested" without defining whether someone who retook twice in a year is counted once or twice (BACB annual data).

Does BACB publish BCBA pass rates by state?

Not on the pages we checked. BACB's tables are overall figures, and the program report lists programs, not states (annual data; program reports).

How many BCBAs are there?

BACB counted 81,566 BCBA certificants at the end of 2025, and 8,021 people became newly certified that year (BACB annual data).

Sources, verification, and independence

Sources

• BACB, Examination Information: historical BCBA, BCaBA, and RBT results (2021–2025); exam format; scoring method and FAQs.
• BACB, Annual Data Report: testing and certification data, 2020–2025.
• BACB, University Examination Pass Rates: report index, usage guidance, and faculty FAQs.
• BACB, BCBA Examination Pass Rates for University Training Programs (2024): updated December 2025; all 195 entries.
• BACB, BCBA Examination Pass Rates for University Training Programs (2023): updated August 2024; 2023 rows used in the change table; one degree-label match is not treated as confirmed.
• BACB, BCBA Examination Pass Rates for Verified Course Sequences 2014–2018: updated August 2019; Summary Statistics.
• BACB, BCBA Examination Pass Rates for Verified Course Sequences 2015–2019: updated February 2023; 2019 Summary Statistics, p. 1.
• BACB, BCBA Handbook: updated June 2026; exam version rule (p. ii) and testing window and attempts (p. 31).
• BACB, BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.): updated September 2024.
• BACB, Guidance for Meeting the BCBA Requirements During the 2027 Transition: updated January 2026; BCBA Examination, p. 4.
• BACB, Recent & Upcoming Changes: requirement dates for 2026, 2027, and 2032.
• BACB, The 2022 Transition: historical 5th-edition examination start date only.
• BACB, February 2022 Newsletter: 6th-edition implementation timeline, p. 4.
• NIST, Confidence Intervals for a Binomial Proportion: Wilson interval formula; not a study of BACB candidates.
• Further reading: Dubuque, E. M., & Kazemi, E. (2022). An investigation of BCBA exam pass rates as a quality indicator of applied behavior analysis training programs. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 15, 909–923.

What we checked. Last verified September 17, 2026. Verification covered BACB's 2020–2025 BCBA result tables; the 2025 BCaBA and RBT comparison figures; the university pass-rate index; all 195 entries in the 2024 BCBA program register; the 2023 rows used for the year-to-year table; the 2014–2019 course-sequence summary figures; the BCBA Handbook on testing windows, attempts, and exam versions; the current BCBA Test Content Outline; the 2027 transition guidance; and BACB's scoring information. The PDF table images were checked, including the conflicting Youngstown period markers. The derived figures were recalculated from the displayed inputs.

How we label numbers. Figures credited to BACB come straight from BACB. “Our calc” marks Castleport arithmetic, with the method stated beside it. “Our analysis” marks our reading of the data. Preparation and verification used AI assistance, including source checks and calculation checks; this is not review by BACB or a qualified professional reviewer. See our methodology, independence policy, and corrections log.

Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), Pearson VUE, or any university listed here. Exam and credential names identify their subjects, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Pass rates describe past groups. They don't predict any individual's result, and nothing here guarantees passing, certification, licensure, or employment.