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

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.