NCTJ: 45% pass rate in NCE newspaper reporter test

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The National Council for the Training of Journalists has reported a "disappointing" fall in the pass rate for the exams to become a fully qualified senior newspaper reporter.

Only 45 per cent of candidates - 48 out of 107 - passed the latest round of the National Certificate Examination (NCE), which was sat at seven test centres around the UK last month.

The pass rate in the practice exam - which looked at legal issues facing reporters - fell considerably from 70 per cent in November last year to 44 per cent in the latest round.

Chief examiner Steve Nelson said in a release : "It is always disappointing to report that the pass rate for the National Certificate Examination has fallen.

"What can only be described as silly errors cost some candidates dearly, while the challenging interview caught several people out when it came to attention to detail.

"However, a classic news report scenario brought out the best from more than a few candidates, continuing a strong pass rate. There were encouraging signs, too, among the logbook entries and there were clear signs of guidance in the office - something that was shown to be lacking previously."

The pass rate for the news interview exam was 42 per cent, with examiners saying: "There were lots of strong quotes to be had, along with the drama of the story, however some candidates could not grasp the strands of the story, there were errors in the copy and several were also too long."

The news report test was passed by 53 per cent of candidates, although the examiners noted that "shorthand was weak in a number of cases and there were also some careless mistakes with not enough attention to detail".