For years, the standard advice about the PCC and MCC exam was that you can’t really cram for it. It isn’t a test of what you know. It’s a test of what you’d do. That reassurance is about to expire.
The ICF credentialing exam changes on November 10, 2026, and the headline isn’t what you might expect. Today’s exam is entirely about situational judgment. Every item presents you with a scenario and asks for your best response. The redesigned version keeps 44 of those, but also adds 36 knowledge-based questions. Nearly half the test will now ask what you know.
One clarification before anything else, because ICF has announced several credentialing changes this year and they run together in a coach’s inbox. This is the written exam. It isn’t the retirement of the ACC/PCC Performance Evaluation, and it isn’t the new mentor coach specialization. Different requirement, different timeline, different preparation.
What actually changes on November 10
The current exam, still live today, is 78 items over 180 minutes, all of them situational. Here’s what’s changing.
| Current exam | From November 10, 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Total items | 78 | 80 |
| Situational judgment | 78 | 44 |
| Knowledge-based | 0 | 36 |
| Time allowed | 180 minutes | 150 minutes, including one optional 10-minute break |
Those figures come from ICF’s own breakdown of the redesign, which keeps the four domains in place: Foundation, Co-Creating the Relationship, Communicating Effectively, and Cultivating Learning and Growth. ICF says the difficulty level and pass rate stay consistent with the current exam. The redesign also brings the test in line with the 2025 update to the Core Competencies and the Code of Ethics.
None of this applies to the ACC exam, which is a separate test and already leans into knowledge questions.
Why the knowledge section is the part to take seriously
The knowledge-based format isn’t new to ICF. It’s the format the ACC exam has used all along, but now it’s coming to the PCC and MCC level.
What changes the most is the type of studying that pays off. A hypothetical situation lets you reason your way to a defensible answer, even if you can’t name the specific competency you were applying. You can’t do that with a knowledge item. You might be asked directly to name what a competency covers, or what the Code of Ethics requires in a specific circumstance, and your best guess or instinct won’t guarantee you deliver the correct answer.
Most experienced coaches think of the competencies as habits rather than as specific language. You do the thing, even if you don’t name it outright. That’s been fine for the exam… until now.
One practical trap: study the current versions, not the ones in your old training binder. The competencies and the ethics code were both updated in 2025, and the redesigned exam is written against those updates. So a printout from your certification program in 2022 might be teaching you the wrong answer to 36 questions.
The clock is ticking
Run the math on those two columns. The current exam gives you about two minutes and twenty seconds per item. The new one gives you 80 items in 150 minutes, and if you take the optional break, that’s roughly a minute and forty-five seconds each. Call it half a minute less per question.
That sounds a little worse than it actually is. Knowledge questions are usually quick. You either have the answer or you don’t. And sitting with one rarely produces it. The real pacing risk is on the other 44 questions, where a scenario invites you to weigh four plausible responses until the clock runs out.
So the habit worth practicing before test day is a decision cutoff. Read a question, choose, and move on. Deliberating your way through the situational half is how candidates run out of time on the easy points at the end.
Sit the current exam or wait for the new one?
You have a real choice here, and it closes soon. ICF has set March 31, 2027 as the final date to sit the current exam. Both versions are accepted in the window between November and then. After that date, the redesigned exam is the only one on offer.
Sit the current exam if:
- You’re eligible now and already deep in preparation built around scenario items.
- Your training predates the 2025 competency update and you’d rather not relearn the language of it under deadline.
- Reasoning through gray-area judgment calls is your strength, and recall isn’t.
Prepare for the new one if:
- You haven’t started studying, or your eligibility hours land after the fall.
- Your program taught the 2025 competencies directly, which means a third of the new exam is closer to reach for you than for someone trained earlier.
- You’d rather have 36 items you can genuinely study for than 78 that all come down to judgment.
One caution on the fallback plan. ICF’s published retake terms for the current exam include a 14-day wait after a first attempt and a $105 fee, but the organization hasn’t said whether those terms carry over to the redesigned version. Don’t build a timeline that depends on a cheap second try.
How to prepare for situational judgment items
The 44 situational items are still the larger half of the exam, and they’re the part almost no study guide teaches you how to practice. Outside of coaching, these are a well-established question type with their own logic.
1. Read for the best answer, not the right one
Situational judgment tests present options of varying effectiveness rather than one correct response. Two options can both be defensible coaching. Your job is ranking them, which is a different mental move than eliminating wrong ones, and it’s the move you should practice.
2. Anchor your choice in the framework, not your instinct
The guidance SHRM publishes for its own situational exams applies here as well: read the scenario for the keywords that signal what’s actually being assessed, then answer from the core competencies, instead of your personal experience. Your instincts as a working coach are likely good. They’re also shaped by your clients, your niche, and habits nobody scores. The exam is scoring against a defined standard.
3. Give it real hours, not just a weekend
SHRM tells candidates for its certification exams to plan on roughly 40 to 80 hours of study. ICF hasn’t published a comparable number, and the exams aren’t the same. Still, it’s useful advice. Don’t be lulled into thinking you can prepare for a competency-based exam by skimming some material on your next flight.
What ICF has released so far, and what it hasn’t
ICF has committed to publishing a free tutorial on the new format before launch. Sample items for the new split weren’t available at the time of writing. The sample questions, tutorial, study system, and webinar series currently on ICF’s exam page were built for the exam that’s being replaced, which makes them useful for the situational half and silent on the rest.
That’s the kind of gap third-party prep sellers will fill quickly. If you see an advertisement for practice tests for the November format right now, ask what they’re modeled on. Because nobody has seen the new items yet.
The best preparation is the unglamorous one. Read the 2025 competencies and the Code of Ethics as documents, not as ideas you already have. Then keep practicing the skills themselves, since the situational half still rewards a coach who has genuinely done the work.
A credential that keeps its meaning
Exam redesigns are irritating when you’re the one in mid-preparation. They’re also the reason those letters after your name still mean something a decade after you earned them. A credential that never updates its measure of competence eventually stops measuring anything, and the trust your certification buys you with a corporate buyer depends on you keeping up-to-date.
You have until November before the choice gets more narrow, and until March 2027 before it closes altogether. That’s more warning than most professions get. So pick your version, then put the current competencies in front of you… and start!
