This post builds on One Habit Could Save You Hundreds of Hours Studying for the BCBA Exam and it makes those rationales dangerous. 

Been writing rationales for every answer? (I hope so! I DID challenge you after all ⚔️)

Now that you’ve built this habit, let’s crank those rationales from good to scary good. Because here’s the secret:

Strong rationales result in strong learning

“I picked B because it felt right” is not a rationale. That’s a vibe.

“So how do I write a strong rationale?!”

What a great question!

There are several variables that can apply to any question about behavior. Your job is to connect how they relate to bring clarity on how to answer a question.

Let’s start with a simple example!

Q: Billy’s new babysitter Aly is quick to use time-out from TV time when Billy screams to change it to his show. Aly saw his screaming stop after just two exposures to time-out. Which basic contingency is responsible for Billy’s change in screaming behavior?

A. Negative Reinforcement
B. Positive Punishment
C. Extinction
D. Negative Punishment

Alright, send out your spidey senses, but don’t seal your answer yet!! Let’s think this through.

Step 1: Ask what the question is actually asking.

The most important variable to any question is what is it asking? The contingency for Billy no longer screaming. Got it!

Step 2: Pull up the basics and the relevant parts of the definition.

Basic contingencies look at consequences of a behavior and changed rates of behavior. I see there was time-out after the behavior, and screaming decreased.

Step 3: Rule out some answers.

It can’t be A, because screaming decreased, not increased. And something was removed after screaming. That doesn’t seem like extinction, which is more like previous reinforcement not occurring when the behavior occurs.

Step 4: Connect the features you saw to the remaining answers. Refer back to the question to refine.

I’m down to positive and negative punishment. We see that it’s time-out, and that usually means negative punishment. But does “exposures” mean something was added? No, that just means two times there was time-out.

The answer is D, time-out!!

DING, DING, DING!!

D it is!! Every question will require us to clarify what is truly being asked. Always start there!

After that, we started making connections, starting with simple and leading to more complex. Connections were made between definitions, the scenario, procedures, outcomes, and more! Each layer got us systematically closer to the answer.

Depending on the question, you may also have to wrestle with ethics, best practices, evidence-based choice, data/graph analysis, assessment of behavior, social validity, client dignity, and so much more.

This is where that basic knowledge becomes critical. If you misunderstand (or don’t completely understand) the fundamentals, your foundation to answer a question will start off on the wrong path.

That’s why processing rationales is more important than mashing your face at mock exams endlessly.

It’s also why we build our mocks the way we do

That’s the reason we structure our Beat the BEAST mock exams the way we do at Understanding Behavior.

Other than an ego boost from remembering questions, there’s not much to gain by taking the same mock exam twice. So we tell you once, go deeper, then move on (remember, we’re trying to stay efficient here).

Our rationales tell you each way that you should have thought about the question. If you soak it in, you might be shocked how quickly your scores change!

We also provide an error analysis tool to all students for free. Having a better assessment of how you err will help inform what you really need to work on.

Check em out if you want some badass studying tools, or grab em all here.

You’ll like em, but no pressure! Please keep hanging here and using my free content if you find it useful, whether you’re a customer or not.

Your move

Try this rationale process out the next time you face a question and see how it goes! It’s more complicated and challenging, but that’s you leveling up high enough to DESTROY this beast!!

'Til next time!

💜🤘🤓

Nick