RBT Exam Passing Score and What Score Do You Need to Pass Exam?
What Score Do You Need to Pass the RBT Exam?
RBT Exam passing score of 200 out of 250 is required to pass, which means getting 60 to 68 correct answers on the 75 scored questions, or about 80% accuracy.
Is this your first time preparing for the exam, and want to know what score you need to pass?
How Is the RBT Exam Scored?
The RBT exam uses something called a scaled score.
Basically it means you won’t get a percentage.
And you will also not see how many you got right.
Instead, your score will fall somewhere between 0 and 250.
So, how does that work?
Well, the BACB uses this scaled system to make things fair.
Like you already know, not every exam is exactly the same.
Some versions are slightly harder than others.
The scaled score adjusts for that.
It evens the playing field and thus someone who got a tougher set of questions doesn’t get penalized.
Scale Scoring System Explained
If you are still confused about how it works, don’t worry. I am gonna explain it in simple terms to better help you grasp the answer.
Let’s say Mary just took her RBT exam. Now, she answered all 85 questions and submitted her test.
But here’s the thing: only 75 of those questions are scored.
The other 10?
They’re just “test questions” the BACB is trying out.
Mary doesn’t know which ones are tests and which ones are real and count. No one does, so she had to try her best on all of them.
Mary got 61 questions right out of the 75 scored ones. If we do a basic calculation, that’s a raw score of 81%.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Mary’s exam was slightly harder than someone else’s.
Maybe her version had longer scenarios or tougher graphs. That’s where scaled scoring comes in.
The BACB takes Mary’s raw score and converts it into a scaled score—a number between 0 and 250.
And this help makes the scores fair across different versions of the test.
Final Result
Now, let’s say Mary’s scaled score came out to 204.
She passed. Why?
Because the passing scaled score is 200.
But let’s imagine another scenario where someone else got 61 questions right, but their version was slightly easier.
Their scaled score might be 199, and that means they didn’t pass.
That’s why raw score and scaled score aren’t always the same thing. The scaled score basically adjusts for fairness.
What’s the RBT Exam Passing Score?
You need a scaled score of 200 to pass the RBT exam.
That’s the number you’re aiming for. I want you to aim to get a minimum of 200 or higher to be on the safe side.
How Many Questions Do You Need to Get Right?
The RBT exam has 85 questions, but only 75 of them are scored. The other 10 are pilot questions. You won’t know which is which. They’re mixed in to test new items for future exams.
To put it strictly in a mathematical sense, you must get a pass score of about 60 out of 75 to be correct.
That’s around 80%. But again, you won’t see this percentage, and just your scaled score.
So, my personal advice would be if you want to pass, aim for 80% accuracy during practice. That gives you the safest shot at landing a 200 on the real thing.
What Happens If You Don’t Reach the Passing Score?
Don’t be disheartened if you fall short of that 200 mark. What now?
- You’ll get a breakdown of which sections you struggled with
- You can retake the test after 30 days
- You’re allowed up to 3 attempts per year
And yes, people pass the second or third time all the time.
You’re not out just because you missed it once.
Pass Rate (Just So You Know)
- First-time pass rate: around 73–80%
- Retake pass rate: usually under 50%
SO, I want you to take that first shot seriously. Prep well, use our study guide and test series.
Don’t just rely on flashcards or definitions, as this exam is not about theory alone; you need to learn how to apply what you know.
