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F.3: Design and evaluate assessments of relevant skill strengths and areas of need.

Free practice questions for this part of the BCBA, with an explanation for every option.

A BCBA uses an assessment that compares a 4-year-old's language skills to a sequence of mastery criteria, without comparing the child to same-age peers. What type of assessment is this?
  1. A. Indirect functional assessment
    Indirect functional assessments collect informant reports about the function of problem behavior, not skill levels.
  2. B. Criterion-referenced assessment
    Correct. Criterion-referenced assessments measure performance against set skill criteria, which helps identify what to teach next.
  3. C. Functional analysis
    A functional analysis tests what maintains problem behavior. It does not measure skill mastery.
  4. D. Norm-referenced assessment
    Norm-referenced assessments compare a person's performance with a normative peer group, which this assessment does not do.
A student rarely finishes math worksheets. During assessment, the BCBA offers the student's most preferred activity for finishing a worksheet, and the student finishes it quickly with 95% accuracy. What does this result most likely show?
  1. A. A skill (acquisition) deficit that needs direct instruction in math
    Fast, accurate work under strong reinforcement shows the skill is already in the student's repertoire.
  2. B. A performance (motivation) deficit, because the student has the skill but it is not reliably reinforced
    Correct. The 'can't do vs. won't do' test shows the skill exists, so the problem is the motivating conditions.
  3. C. That the worksheets are too easy and should be harder
    High accuracy under reinforcement does not show the work is too easy. It shows the behavior depends on the consequences available.
  4. D. Automatically maintained noncompliance
    Nothing in this test addresses automatic reinforcement. The behavior changed with a socially mediated consequence.
A BCBA is assessing a hand-washing chain using single-opportunity probes. The client does the first two steps correctly and then makes an error on step 3. What should the BCBA do?
  1. A. Complete step 3 for the client and keep scoring the rest of the steps
    Completing the step and continuing to score describes the multiple-opportunity method, not single-opportunity.
  2. B. Prompt step 3 and score it as correct
    Scoring a prompted step as correct makes the client's independent repertoire look larger than it is.
  3. C. Stop the probe and score step 3 and all later steps as incorrect
    Correct. In the single-opportunity method, the assessment ends at the first error and the remaining steps are scored incorrect, which gives a conservative estimate.
  4. D. Restart the chain from step 1
    Restarting the chain is not part of either standard task analysis assessment method.

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