What the Forgetting Curve Means for BCBA® Exam Prep

Many BCBA^® candidates find themselves struggling not because they’re unfamiliar with the material. They struggle because they cannot retain and retrieve it when it matters most. For anyone designing ABA curriculum, that distinction matters.

Student preparedness is often framed as a study problem.

• Did students review enough?
• Did they start early enough?
• Did they spend enough time with the content?

But there is another factor that can quietly undermine exam readiness even when learners appear engaged and on track: forgetting.

The forgetting curve describes the tendency for newly learned information to fade over time when it is not revisited or actively used.¹ In practice, that means students may understand a concept during a lecture, perform reasonably well in the short term, and still lose access to that knowledge later if the curriculum does not reinforce it.

Across learning sciences, this is presented as a learning-design issue as much as a learner-effort issue, especially with the omission of retrieval practice and spaced repetition from the curriculum.

Why the Forgetting Curve Matters in ABA Education

Figure 1: Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and importance of reviewing.²

For ABA educators, the forgetting curve is more than a psychology concept. It offers a practical explanation for why some students who seem prepared throughout the program still struggle closer to exam time.

When learning is concentrated into isolated teaching moments, students may retain enough to move through a course without building durable recall. Over time, that knowledge weakens, especially in content-heavy programs where learners are constantly moving on to new material. What results is a preparedness gap that may remain invisible until much later.

This is where curriculum design becomes critical. If student preparedness is the priority, the question is not only if they were taught the material–but whether they had enough structured opportunities to revisit it, retrieve it, and apply it over time. 

The Problem With Passive Review

One reason this gap persists is that students often rely on passive review. Re-reading, rewatching, and revisiting notes can create a sense of progress, but those strategies do not always strengthen long-term retention.

A student may recognize a concept when they see it, but recognition is not the same as recall. For students to better retrieve and apply knowledge independently and under pressure during exams, they must be able to actively pull information from memory.

Why Retrieval Practice Supports Student Preparedness

In practical terms, retrieval practice asks learners to recall what they know without simply looking back at the answer first.³ Low-stakes quizzes, cumulative check-ins, case-based prompts, and short formative assessments can all support this process. To benefit both learners and educators, the goal is not to just evaluate but reinforce.

For students, retrieval practice strengthens memory, improves recall, and helps surface weak areas before they become bigger problems. For educators, it offers a more accurate view of what students actually know, where support is needed, and which concepts may need to be revisited across the curriculum.

Why Spaced Repetition Also Matters

If retrieval practice helps strengthen memory, spaced repetition helps protect it over time.

Spaced repetition works by bringing material back at planned intervals rather than relying on one-time exposure or a final concentrated review period.⁴ This is important because the timing of reinforcement affects whether knowledge moves into long-term memory or fades before students need it again.

As an educator, the goal is to help students capture important concepts as they reappear across the learning experience, not only when faculty reaches the end of a unit or at the start of exam prep season.

For designers of ABA programs, this can make exam preparedness more continuous and less reactionary.

What This Means for ABA Curriculum Design

Forgetting curve psychology points to a simple but important takeaway: student preparedness should be built across the curriculum, not left to the final stretch.

That does not mean every course needs to become exam prep. It means learning experiences should organically provide students with repeated chances to retrieve and revisit foundational knowledge in ways that support retention.

Practical strategies can include:

• Low-stakes quizzes during and after instruction
• Revisiting previously taught concepts in later modules
• Building cumulative review into regular coursework
• Application-based prompts that require recall, not just recognition
• Monitoring patterns in performance that suggest certain concepts are not sticking

The Bigger Opportunity

When student preparedness improves, the benefits extend beyond the individual learner.

• Programs gain earlier visibility into where students may need support 
• Faculty can respond before knowledge gaps widen
• Program designers can better judge whether key concepts are being retained, not just covered in the curriculum

The forgetting curve may be familiar in theory, but its implications are highly practical. If students are forgetting faster than the curriculum reinforces, preparedness will remain fragile. When educators design curricula for retrieval and spacing, they can create stronger conditions for long-term retention and more reliable exam readiness.

This offers real opportunity for ABA educators: not simply helping students study more, but helping them recall better.

The BCBA® Pass Rate Gap: Trends, Pressures, and What ABA Programs Need Next

ABA programs are under growing pressure to support strong student outcomes in a complex educational and regulatory environment. As certification expectations rise, programs need clearer ways to evaluate readiness, identify struggling students earlier, and support exam day success.

This whitepaper explores the key forces shaping ABA education today, and outlines the programs that need to close the preparation gap through more proactive, data-informed approaches to supporting students.

Learn More

About TrueLearn

TrueLearn is a leading digital learning and analytics company that focuses on training healthcare professionals in the areas of medicine, nursing, therapies, and allied health. 

Preparing for high-stakes exams in healthcare is challenging, even for the highest-performing learners. Our aim is to help them realize their full potential while supporting institutions to meet educational goals.

References & Footnotes

*Board Certified Behavior Analyst^® (BCBA^®) certification is a registered trademark of Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc. This content is not endorsed or approved by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc.^®.