Examiners reports on the NCTJ autumn NCE papers have been published, revealing the highs and lows of trainee journalists' attempts at the three crucial exams.

In the News Interview, exam markers found many candidates struggled to combine the facts of what was a straightforward story about an armed robbery at a shop, and they also reported on carelesness in the answers.

But the report said: "With a few exceptions, most trainees managed to write to length.

"There were some excellent accounts of the raid's drama.

"Editors would have been proud to see the efforts of these candidates."

But the examiners added: "The robbers were described as ramraiders (on a motorcycle?), the duty manager was called the deputy manager; 'armed robbers shot' when only one of them had a gun; kiosk was a word trainees had a problem spelling. Standards of grammar, punctuation and basic sentence construction were lower than expected."

In the Newspaper Practice section a challenging paper revealed weaknesses in the ability of many candidates to deal with legal dangers, with too many seeking to usurp their editor and wrongly take on a senior role in his or her absence.

The examiners' report said: "The scenario presented would have given many editors cause for concern if (as the candidates were told) it had occurred on their patch."

But while markers said they were disappointed that the pass rate for this section was down, they welcomed the small but growing number of candidates who did exceptionally well.

They said: "These candidates invariably followed the general instructions to relate their answers to how they would tackle the challenges if faced with the problem on their own newspapers rather than the mythical Oxdown Gazette.

"They picked up marks for local knowledge by naming, where appropriate, their local council leader and Member of Parliament. (These were, incidentally, all checked.)

"What generally shines through the answers of those awarded high marks is a clear indication that there are well known procedures in the candidates' offices for dealing with major challenges that might arise when reporters are on their own."

Candidates fared best overall in the speech exam.

For this paper candidates were asked to report on developments at a hostel for homeless people, with a "must mention" line that its manager had been cleared of any involvement with drugs found on the premises, as it had earlier been reported that he was being questioned.

Examiners said this was an essential point to the story, but a few candidates omitted the manager entirely, while several others failed to clarify this point.

Candidates were also offered several other angles for a strong intro and markers hoped that whichever angle was chosen, the others would feature early in the story, but examiners said few were able to do this successfully.

The examiners' report said: "Spelling of names was better than usual. But once more there were problems with numbers.

"The printed brief, giving information from the newspaper's database, said clearly:

"23 September 1998: A full-time manager, Adam Jamieson, aged 41, was appointed.

"Copying carelessly, far too many candidates said that by October 2003 he was still aged 41. This error occurred in 72 of the reports - an alarming 35 per cent."

Find out who passed their exams.

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