Reporters across the country are celebrating passing their National Certificate Exam.

80 trainee reporters sat the exam in July with 38 making the grade as seniors. The pass rate of 48pc  matched that of two years ago.

This year saw an ongoing smaller entry, but examiners said this was expected in line with the downturn of recruitment in the industry.

The highest pass rate, apart from the logbook, was the newspaper practice paper with a pass rate of 59pc. Though it has been the highest for the past four exams the results were lower than they have been in recent years.

The number of passes in the news interview exam has been on the increase since November 2009, reaching a peak of 80 pc in March, and tying with the pass rate for the newspaper practice section. However, in the latest NCE the percentage of candidates who passed was down to 55pc, a 15 percentage point decrease on the figures from July 2010, with 37 out of 67 passing the section.

In their report the examiners said that ‘disjointed structure, clumsy sentences, mis-use of words, factual errors and inaccurate quotes should not be present in copy produced by journalists who want to take the next step up the ladder to seniority.’

The news report exam saw a pass rate of 55pc. Examiners felt the majority of candidates did not handle the story – about a rare sighting of a merlin – particularly well, and said the selection of news detail and story structure was the weakest they had encountered for some time.

“There is more pressure than ever on reporters to provide accurate, well-structured newsy stories to deadline,” said the examiners.

There were also some recognition for those who excelled in the exams. Reporter with the Southern Daily Echo Tara Russell won the Ted Bottomley Award for her performance in the newspaper practice exam and the Newsquest Award for submitting the best logbook.

Stuart Gillespie, a journalist at the Fife Herald, who studied at City College Brighton & Hove, won the Society of Editors’ Award for producing the top news interview paper. Examiners were particularly impressed by Stuart’s use of a strong intro which captured the drama and flowed into the second paragraph.

Emma Thomas, a reporter at the Basildon Echo was recognised for her performance in the news report exam. Emma, 23, who studied her preliminary exams at NoSweat Journalism Training, was presented with the Esso Award after producing what examiners said was ‘an easy-to-read story which clearly told the reader everything they needed to know.’

Said Emma: “I actually thought I hadn’t done that well in my NCE and was preparing for the worst – so this came as a pleasant surprise.”

All of the award winners will receive a certificate and a cheque for £250 to recognise their achievements.

For a list of those who passed see: http://www.nctj.com/qualifications/national-certificate/examiners-reports