I recently passed my ICF CKA based on the previous ICF competencies in December 2020. Below are some notes I jotted down right after the exam to aid anyone else who might be studying for the same thing.
- Having a searchable soft copy of the skills paper and the ICF competencies comparision table across ACC/PCC/MCC levels and the ICF competencies table was beneficial (both available from ICF website) ( Download the pdfs docs and convert it to one word doc to make search easier)
- Some questions contain terms that are directly quoted from the ICF competency documents, making them easy to spot if you are very familiar with the ICF competencies document.
- There are no coaching tools related questions.
- To assess our comprehension of coaching principles, we are asked a lot of coaching situational questions .
- Do read ethics documents and competency documents on the ICF website and the competencies video on YouTube (old competencies or new competencies depending on when you are taking the test)
- Many questions around the use of intuition in coaching
- Many questions on accountability , actions , follow up on actions based on various scenarios and also on terminating coaching agreement
- Coacharya CKA test helps somewhat .I recommend doing it twice Max and once just before the CKA say 2 days before .
- Reading a good book on coaching principles helps my recommendations include coaching skills by Jenny Rogers and Laser focussed coaching by Marion Franklin
- The time allotted for the test is more than enough (no need to worry about time pressure) . For me i had 4 hours to complete the test but completed including reviews in 3 hours
- I did not find any indication of which competency a particular questions was based on during the test ( some websites mention that the CKA shows the competency for each question in the question window but i could not see this)
- Using the “marking question for review” option helps for tricky questions so you can review all tricky questions later
- Some questions you can’t really prepare for so try to get most/all easy questions right
- I think about 60% of the questions are easy and about 30% or moderately tough and 10% and are really tough
- Preparing for the 70% pass which is needed for the c k means getting almost all is equations right and at least 15 to 20% Pop the rest correct
So in Summary
- read and reflect on the competencies daily including the competencies table and the PCC markers for 2 weeks before your CKA test
- read all ethics documents including FAQs on the ICF website carefully
- read a good book and coaching skills India good to go
Domains( primary domains in which I remember the questions)
- cancelling coaching agreement scenarios
- handling strong emotions during coaching
- Disconnect between words said and how it is said by coachee
- handling intuitions of coach during coaching
- ethics scenarios
- handling incomplete actions or no actions done (accountability)
- Coachee asking for advice during coaching
- contracting during coaching and before coaching
Here’s wishing you all the best for your CKA exam .
