Senior journalism exams pass rate bounces back from record lows in first half of year

The National Qualification in Journalism pass rate has bounced back from record lows in the first half of this year, with just over three-quarters of trainee reporters passing the senior exams sat in November.

A total of 76 per cent of the 33 candidates who went for the qualification last month made the grade, almost bringing results in-line with a 78 per cent pass rate in November last year.

Two sittings in March and July of this year saw just 55 per cent and 47 per cent of candidates awarded qualifications respectively.

The NQJ exam is broken into four sections: media law and practice, news report, news interview and logbook (or portfolio of work).

Just under 80 per cent of candidates passed the news report section of the exam, where they were asked to find a local news angle for a national story about flooding in the North East.

The moderator said: “The higher pass rate for the November exam shows that candidates are having a greater national/global awareness for news stories …

“In part B it was pleasing to see that trainees were able to gauge a story’s follow-up appeal and produce strong suggestions for this part of the exam.”

Candidates sitting the news interview exam had to report on a man with learning difficulties being attacked by Leonardo the gorilla after entering his enclosure. More than 70 per cent passed.

Around eight in ten candidates were found to have solid knowledge of defamation, privacy, reporting restrictions and other crucial elements of media law.

All 15 candidates who sat the logbook section of the qualification achieved a pass mark.

The next NQJ exam will be sat by candidates in March 2019.

The National Council for the Training of Journalists announced in August that the NQJ would go through “radical changes” to make it fit for the digital age.

Full list of reporters awarded the NQJ in November: