How to Prepare for the ICF Credentialing Exam
ICF now has two exams by credential level: a knowledge-based ACC exam and a situational-judgment Credentialing Exam for PCC/MCC. How to prepare for each.
9 min read
The Coala Blog: ICF Credentialing, Explained
Practical, jargon-free guides to the ICF Core Competencies, the credentialing paths, and preparing for your performance evaluation — written for coaches in training.
50 Powerful Coaching Questions by ICF Competency
Fifty strong coaching questions grouped by the ICF competency each serves: agreement, trust, awareness, action, closing. A practice tool, not a script.
10 min read
Follow the ICF Session Structure Without Sounding Scripted
Memorizing agreement, explore, evoke, design, close makes you sound like you're managing a checklist. Hold the ICF structure as a map, not a script.
8 min read
AI in Coaching: What It Can and Can't Do (2026)
An honest 2026 landscape: where AI genuinely helps coaches, where it shouldn't be used, the data-privacy question, and how to keep the human part.
9 min read
A Great Client Session Isn't Always Great for Assessment
Your most powerful client session can be hard to show for assessment — and that's no verdict on you. What ICF measures, and how to choose what to submit.
8 min read
How to Choose Your Coaching Niche (Without Boxing In)
Why a niche makes your coaching easy to say yes to, a simple method to find yours without boxing yourself in, and how it fits your ICF coaching hours.
8 min read
Open vs Closed Questions: Why ICF Assessors Care
Plain definitions, why the open-to-closed ratio matters to ICF assessors, when a closed question is right, and a cheat sheet for making questions open.
8 min read
Why Coaches Fail the PCC Performance Evaluation
The recurring habits behind a not-yet-passing PCC performance evaluation — talk-time, advice, leading questions, staying shallow — and how to fix each.
9 min read
How to Record Coaching Sessions for ICF (with Consent)
The performance evaluation needs a recorded session and transcript. How to get clean audio, ask for consent ethically, and store recordings responsibly.
8 min read
How to Get Your First Coaching Client
Where your first coaching clients come from, pro bono versus paid, and how to log every hour toward your ICF requirements from day one.
8 min read
What's Changing in ICF Credentialing in 2027
From April 1, 2027 the Performance Evaluation is no longer required for the ACC and PCC Portfolio paths. Here's what replaces it and what it means.
7 min read
ICF PCC Markers: What Assessors Listen For
The PCC Markers are the behavioral indicators ICF assessors use to score recordings. Here's what each competency group sounds like at PCC level.
8 min read
How to Prepare for Your ICF Performance Evaluation
A practical pre-submission checklist for the ACC and PCC recordings: talk-time, open questions, advice-giving, presence, and session structure.
9 min read
How to Choose Which Session to Submit to ICF
Picking your strongest recording is a real decision. A repeatable way to compare candidate sessions against the markers and submit with confidence.
7 min read
ICF ACC vs PCC: Requirements and Which to Pursue
A side-by-side of ACC and PCC: training hours, mentor coaching, performance evaluation, and the credentialing exam, plus honest guidance on which to pick.
8 min read
ICF Mentor Coaching Requirements: The 10 Hours
What the 10 hours of mentor coaching are, the group vs individual split, the three-month minimum, why ICF requires it, and how to make the hours count.
7 min read
How to Self-Assess Your Own Coaching Session
A repeatable post-session review routine you can run yourself, with competency-by-competency prompts that turn one recording into things to practice.
8 min read
The 8 ICF Core Competencies, Explained (2025)
A plain-language walk through all 8 ICF Core Competencies in their 4 groups, with a one-line note on what an assessor wants to see for each.
9 min read