BCBA 6th Edition Test Content Outline: What Changed and How to Study for It
Since January 2025, the BCBA exam has followed the 6th Edition Test Content Outline (TCO) instead of the 5th Edition Task List. The exam looks the same from the outside, but what's inside — and how it's weighted — moved. Here's what changed and what it means for how you study.
What changed, in brief
| 5th Edition | 6th Edition (current) | |
|---|---|---|
| Document name | Task List | Test Content Outline (TCO) |
| Sections | Content areas A–I | Domains A–I |
| Tasks | 92 | 104 |
| Domain A | Philosophical Underpinnings | Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations |
| Exam format | 185 questions, 4 hours | 185 questions, 4 hours (unchanged) |
A new name with a narrower purpose
The BACB renamed the Task List to the Test Content Outline to make its job explicit: it's an outline of what the exam covers, not a description of everything a behavior analyst does in practice. That matters for your studying. Every task in the TCO is fair game, and the domain weights tell you how many questions each area carries.
Tasks were added, removed, merged and split
The jump from 92 to 104 tasks isn't just additions. Published comparisons of the two documents describe tasks that were removed, pairs of tasks merged into one, and broad tasks split into several narrower ones. One example: the single 5th Edition task on schedules of reinforcement became two — one on simple schedules, and one on concurrent, multiple, mixed and chained schedules.
Splits like this tend to show up as more questions on details that older materials covered in one paragraph. If your study materials still use 5th Edition task numbers, check them against the current outline rather than assuming full coverage.
The 6th Edition domains and their weights
The 175 scored questions are split across nine domains. The weights are the single most useful number for planning your study time:
| Domain | Scored questions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| A. Philosophical Foundations | 8 | 5% |
| B. Concepts & Principles | 24 | 14% |
| C. Measurement & Data | 21 | 12% |
| D. Experimental Design | 13 | 7% |
| E. Ethics | 22 | 13% |
| F. Behavior Assessment | 23 | 13% |
| G. Behavior-Change Procedures | 25 | 14% |
| H. Selecting Interventions | 20 | 11% |
| I. Supervision & Management | 19 | 11% |
Five domains — Behavior-Change Procedures, Concepts & Principles, Behavior Assessment, Ethics and Measurement — make up 115 of the 175 scored questions. Ethics alone carries 22, and its questions are based on the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts that took effect in 2022, so make sure your ethics review uses the current code's wording and numbering.
What it means for your prep
- Study from the 6th Edition outline. Use it as your checklist; each practice question you do should map to a current task.
- Weight your time by domain size. A gap in a 25-question domain costs three times as much as the same gap in an 8-question one.
- Look for the split topics. Wherever one old task became several new ones, expect finer-grained questions and practice them specifically.
- Practice on scenarios. The format didn't change: most questions are short applied scenarios, not definitions.
Every question in Baseline is tagged to a 6th Edition task, so you can see your accuracy by domain and drill the ones that carry the most points. Start with free practice questions for each domain.
Sources: BACB BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.) and BACB announcements on the transition; comparisons of the 5th and 6th Editions published by ABA training providers. Check the BACB website for the official documents.
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When did the BCBA exam switch to the 6th Edition?
BCBA exams have been based on the 6th Edition Test Content Outline since January 2025.
How many tasks are in the BCBA 6th Edition Test Content Outline?
104 tasks across 9 domains (A–I), up from 92 tasks in the 5th Edition Task List.
Can I still use 5th Edition study materials?
Much of the core content carries over, but materials written for the 5th Edition won't map cleanly to the new task numbers or domain weights, and may miss tasks that were added or split. Use them as a supplement and check coverage against the 6th Edition outline.
Did the number of questions on the BCBA exam change?
No. The exam is still 185 questions in 4 hours (175 scored and 10 unscored pilot items). What changed is how the scored questions are distributed across domains.
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