How the 2026 NEBOSH General Certificate open-book exam works

The National General Certificate has two units. GNC1, Management of health and safety, is the open-book exam. GNC2, Risk assessment, is a practical assessment. GNC1 assesses the first four elements of the syllabus:

1. Why we should manage workplace health and safety
2. How health and safety management systems work and what they look like
3. Managing risk: understanding people and processes
4. Health and safety monitoring and measuring

Elements 5 to 11 (physical and psychological health, musculoskeletal health, chemical and biological agents, general workplace issues, work equipment, fire and electricity) are assessed by the GNC2 risk assessment, not the exam.

The paper opens with a realistic scenario: a workplace, the people in it and a developing situation, often with you in a role such as a newly appointed health and safety advisor. Then come tasks, each a question with its marks in brackets. The full paper is 100 marks; NEBOSH’s sample shows five typical tasks worth 50.

Most tasks carry a note telling you how far to use the scenario: either “You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario”, or a question that opens “Based on the scenario only”, where nearly every point should come from the scenario.

The paper is available for a 24-hour window on the day of the sitting, and you don’t have to work for all of it: NEBOSH says the exam takes about four hours, including reading, researching and writing. Write no more than 3,000 words in all, spread across the tasks in proportion to their marks. NEBOSH allows up to 10% over the recommended word count. That works out at roughly 2.4 minutes and 30 words a mark.

In general, one mark is given for each correct technical point that is clearly shown, up to the marks for the task. A single word or a bare list is unlikely to score, because it doesn’t show understanding or a link to the scenario. A point made twice scores once.

The grade comes from GNC1 alone, though you need to pass both units for the qualification: Refer below 45%, Pass 45 to 64, Credit 65 to 74, Distinction 75 and over. The pass mark of 45% is provisional.

You can use your notes, textbooks and websites, but you must not copy and paste from them, and you must not get help from anyone during the assessment, including your Learning Partner and other learners. You list the sources you used at the end of your answer sheet; the reference list doesn’t count towards the word limit. When you submit, you declare the work is entirely your own. Answers are checked for plagiarism and collusion.

Using AI to write or improve your answers counts as someone else’s work. Marked Mock is for practice only: it marks its own scenarios and never writes an answer.

After you submit, you have a short closing interview with your Learning Partner, by video or in person. You show photo ID, and on video the room you’re in; then the interviewer asks about your answers to confirm the work is yours. It isn’t marked, but your result isn’t declared until it has happened.