Courses Available Online, Virtually and Classroom
Fully Certified NEBOSH, IOSH, IEMA Accredited
7-Day Customer Service
Jason Mordecai

What are NEBOSH General Certificate Exams? | NG1/IG1 Pass Marks

March 2025


The NEBOSH General Certificate has a two-stage assessment process - an open book exam and a practical risk assessment. Each exam counts for 50% of your grade, so you have to pass both to achieve your full qualification. In this blog, we've broken down everything you can expect from the exam process, including pass marks and when you'll receive your final hard-copy certificate.

The NEBOSH General Certificate has an Open Book Exam (OBE), which is taken online and opens up a world of opportunity for those looking to get NEBOSH qualified. With the use of an online exam portal, you are able to complete your entire course from the comfort of your own home or office.


How Is the NEBOSH General Certificate Assessed?

The NEBOSH General Certificate (2018 specification) has 2 assessments:

  1. NG1/IG1: an open-book exam (OBE) and supporting interview.
  2. NG2/IG2: a 3-hour practical assignment in your workplace.

Both units account for 50% of your final grade. 


NEBOSH General Certificate Open Book Exam Guide

The Unit NG1/IG1 open book exam assesses the learning outcomes for Elements 1-4, with scenario-based questions. This helps to test your ability to apply your learning to a real-life setting, rather than just referencing key bits of information from memory. The exam is taken entirely online, so you can use digital resources and textbooks to help you.

The exam will open with a scenario describing a real-life incident or safety intervention. It'll outline organisational activities, worker behaviour, and the role you play within the developing situation.

You'll be asked to complete a series of tasks based on the scenario. Remember, the aim of the OBE is to test how you apply your knowledge of health and safety management systems and subjects in the real world. Your answers will need to be relevant to the situation you're presented with and, in some cases, reference specific evidence from the scenario itself.

The paper is worth 100 marks, and you need to achieve 45 to pass. You'll be given 24 hours to submit your answers, but it should only take you around 3 hours to complete.


NEBOSH General Certificate NG2/IG2 Risk Assessment Practical

Unit NG2/IG2 of the NEBOSH General Certificate is a work-based assignment that assesses your practical application of risk assessment and hazard control. You can take as long as you want on your assignment, but it should only take you around 3 hours to complete.

You'll be asked to carry out a risk assessment of a workplace. We recommend you use your own, but you can use any workplace of your choice (even a fictional one).

The assessment is split into 4 sections, each with its own marking criteria which needs to be met:

  1. Description of organisation and methodology
  2. Risk assessment
  3. Action plan
  4. Review and communicate

Your risk assessment should identify a range of hazards from different categories, such as workplace, equipment, electrical or fire. For each hazard, you should consider who could be harmed, existing control measures, additional control measures, and timescales.

You'll then need to identify the 3 most urgent hazards and present actionable control measures. At this point, you'll need to express the legal and financial implications of not controlling them, likelihood and severity of harm, and the specific control measures needed to reduce risk.

For more information, you can view our guide on completing the NG2/IG2 risk assessment assignment.

NEBOSH General Certificate Pass Marks

You need to get 45 marks in both the NG1/IG1 Open Book Exam and the NG2/IG2 Practical Risk Assessment. Your overall final grade is determined by the following marks:

  • Distinction: 75+
  • Credit: 65-74
  • Pass: 45-64
  • Refer (Fail): 0-44

You have 5 years to pass both units of the NEBOSH Certificate, which starts from the moment you pass your first unit.


NEBOSH General Certificate Results

NEBOSH will email you your results within 50 working days of taking your exam and/or submitting your Risk Assessment. They'll use the email address that you put on your booking form, so always double check it's correct.

Your hard copy certificate will be sent out 6-8 weeks after you've passed both exams. As of 2019, you'll only receive one hard-copy Certificate for the whole qualification. The certificate will show your final qualification grade: pass, credit or distinction.

If you want more information on the NEBOSH General Certificate exams or just more clarification on the qualification itself, visit the Astutis Exam Help Centre.

For more information about the course, take a look at the relevant course page for your version of the course below.




Related Blogs

  • RIDDOR for Agriculture: Reporting Requirements and Common Mistakes Image
    Andrew Froude B.Eng (Hons), CMIOSH, MIIRSM, OSHCR

    RIDDOR for Agriculture: Reporting Requirements and Common Mistakes

    Find out the key reporting requirements for RIDDOR in the agricultural industry and the most common mistakes associated with them.
    19.05.25
  • Free Cost-Benefit Analysis Template for Health and Safety: A Practical Guide Image
    Andrew Froude B.Eng (Hons), CMIOSH, MIIRSM, OSHCR

    Free Cost-Benefit Analysis Template for Health and Safety: A Practical Guide

    Download your free cost-benefit analysis template and read our step-by-step use guide to make positive changes in your workplace.
    15.05.25
  • Why Do Managers Need to Be Health and Safety Trained? Image
    William Gaunt

    Why Do Managers Need to Be Health and Safety Trained?

    Understand the moral, legal, and financial reasoning behind training managers in health and safety, with information on what managers should know about their role.
    15.05.25
  • What Is an Environmental Management System? | Business Guide & Benefits Image
    Steve Terry

    What Is an Environmental Management System? | Business Guide & Benefits

    Find out the core principles behind an environmental management system (EMS) and how they benefit business sustainability goals.
    14.05.25
  • Health and Safety Training Grants for IOSH Courses | A Guide for Businesses Image
    Jim Anderson CMIOSH, MIIRSM, AIEMA

    Health and Safety Training Grants for IOSH Courses | A Guide for Businesses

    Find out the grant options available for businesses to fund IOSH courses, so you can receive financial support for your employee's training.
    12.05.25
  • Who is Responsible for Health and Safety in the Workplace? Image
    Brenig Moore DipNEBOSH, CMIOSH, CEnvH

    Who is Responsible for Health and Safety in the Workplace?

    Find out the legal health and safety responsibilities of employees and employers in the workplace, with expert guidance on how to fulfil them.
    12.05.25
Section Curve
Case Studies

Real Life Stories

Find out how learners look back on their training with Astutis. Our case studies give our learners, both individual and corporate, a platform to share their Astutis experience. Discover how training with Astutis has helped past learners and delegates make the world a safer place, one course at a time.
More Image
Bottom Curve
What People Say

Hear What Our Learners Have To Say

We're always there for our customers. 98% of our learners rated their overall experience as good or outstanding. We will always pride ourselves on our customer service. But don’t take our word for it, here is what our customers have to say
  • "The course its self was very well presented and included valuable information. the tutor was very knowledgeable and was able to provide us with real life examples to help understand further. My only downside was the lack or exam practice within the course, the tutor allowed for students to practice exam questions and submit to him for feedback and opened the class half an hour earlier for people to attend to discuss the results. However, this topic was not covered as part of the cause so if you could not attend earlier or have time to submit after you have no feedback on completing the exam questions and no prep for how you should be responding."

    Samantha
    12.05.2025
  • "The course content was very valuable."

    Samantha
    12.05.2025
  • "It was my first time and great learning experience with ASTUTIS"

    22.04.2025
  • "It was great learning experience in sustainability"

    22.04.2025
  • "Very helpful no complaints bit long in the email process but they always got back to me eventually and had the information I needed when requested"

    Antony
    22.04.2025
  • "The course was informative I did need to buy the nebosh course book also as online account eventually got closed and I had to save all documents that were available but overall did well"

    Antony
    22.04.2025
  • "Clear and concise. A lot of information delivered in an easy to digest format. Trainer was engaging and positive, as well as easy to talk to and ask questions. Tech was good and all the materials provided/used were/are helpful."

    Kerrina
    09.04.2025
  • "Clear and concise. A lot of information delivered in an easy to digest format. Trainer was engaging and positive, as well as easy to talk to and ask questions. Tech was good and all the materials provided/used were/are helpful."

    Kerrina
    09.04.2025
  • "excellent trainer easy to follow and good mixture of team discussions."

    Keith
    03.04.2025
  • "covered a lot of my day to day tasks, easy to follow on the second week, found the first week it difficult to see what was required and understand."

    Keith
    03.04.2025