Coaching practices for Examen Review Step

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Examen Review Step, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • When I sit down to review, all I do is read my notes over and over, and they feel familiar so I assume I know them
  • By the time night comes my whole day has blurred into one undifferentiated "fine" or "rough," and I couldn’t actually tell you what happened in it
  • The moment I finish the last page I snap the book shut and move on, feeling done
  • I’ve got the textbook down but I freeze the moment a real exam-style question asks me to actually apply it
  • Whenever I review my own day I quietly spin everything to make myself look better, and I know it

Practices that may help

  1. Reduce: convert main notes to questions in the cue column
    After the session, cover your notes and write a question in the cue column for each main idea.
    Cornell Note-Taking: A System for Learning, Not Just Recording
  2. The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
    The Examen is a short, structured evening review from the Ignatian tradition: you replay the day with gratitude and honest attention to where you felt drawn toward or away from your values, then carry one resolve into tomorrow. It is a centuries-old contemplative practice; its benefits are best described as mechanistically plausible and widely reported rather than established by controlled trials.
  3. Replay the day with honest attention
    Walk back through the day’s events and notice them without rushing to judge.
    The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
  4. Review the whole chapter after you finish
    Do a final pass over all your notes and heading-questions before you close the book.
    The SQ3R Method for Active Reading
  5. Solve practice questions before checking the answer
    Work through exam-style questions on material you just studied — and attempt every question before checking.
    Active Recall: The Most Effective Way to Study
  6. The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
    The Ignatian Examen is a five-step daily prayer and reflection practice developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola: give thanks, ask for clarity, review the day, face what fell short, and resolve what comes next. As a structured reflection method it is centuries-old and widely practiced; its benefits are supported by the broader research on gratitude, emotional review, and implementation intentions, not by trials of the Examen itself.
  7. Ask for clarity and honest perception
    Before reviewing, pause to ask for the capacity to see honestly rather than defensively.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
  8. Close with a resolve for tomorrow
    End by choosing one concrete intention to carry into the next day.
    The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day
  9. Become aware of God’s presence and give thanks
    Open the review by pausing, settling, and naming specific gifts from the day.
    The Ignatian Examen: Five Movements of Daily Review
  10. Begin with gratitude
    Start the review by recalling specific gifts and good moments of the day.
    The Daily Examen: Reviewing the Day

Related concerns

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.

Practice this with IX Coach

Try this practice