NEBOSH La La Land

Lesson 1 – Don’t buy a ticket to NEBOSH La La Land

A train journey has a final destination and it’s marked on the ticket you buy. Commit to your destination – distinction – from the moment you purchase the NEBOSH course. Repeat it over and over in your head.Back to the train journey – you are definitely going somewhere and you have planned and plotted your trip. You think about reaching the final destination and all the things you will do when you get there – and so it should be with your journey to NEBOSH distinction. Visualise receiving the certificate, hear the congratulations and feel that pleasure from the day you book on to your NEBOSH course.

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve.

You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential. (Steve Garvey)

Practical actions

Book the course and pay for it – your journey begins.

Find out the exam date and an estimated date for results. Put the date up on a wall somewhere you can see it every day. When you look at it, repeat every time “I will achieve a NEBOSH distinction this day”. Force the thought into your brain. Next, take 5 minutes out of your day and find a quiet place. Switch your phone off, get comfortable and repeat the following exercise:

1. Take 5 deep slow breaths. Give the breath a colour and follow the air into your body each time.

2. Visualise results day. Play a mini movie in your brain of you receiving the certificate; holding it in your hand; hear the voices of friends, family and colleagues giving you warm praise. Feel the happiness inside, see yourself texting your results to others. Imagine how much acceptance and approval you are getting. Watch the movie of your success and then see yourself going over to the screen and jumping in. Feel all the emotions wash over you.

3. Repeat this every day until your exam date.

The basic concept is just like when you decide upon a destination and book a holiday. You spend a lot of time imagining the pleasure you will have during the getaway. Your mind is fixed and wild baboons will not you stop you from reaching the goal. If you practice this type of thinking towards the goal of NEBOSH distinction, your mind will calculate the best approach to suit you during your journey.

Lesson 2 – Crush the time robbers in time

When you book a holiday you pay a price and a powerful psychological shift takes place in your mind when you pay for something. You must get what you paid for. You must pay a price to achieve a NEBOSH distinction prior to taking the course to enable this psychological leap to occur. Yes, you will pay for a NEBOSH training course with a view to achieving a pass but you haven’t paid for a distinction. The price of this will have to be committed to for the outcome to be achieved. The price for distinction is a time commitment to complete the requisite study hours and the sacrifice you make to free-up this time.

A study plan

Let’s nail this down together. NEBOSH recommend 133 hours for your NGC. Let’s work from a starting point of 140 hours.

My NEBOSH study time – 140 hours

Less tutor delivery time – 60 hours

You have 80 hours of private study time to find so you can apply all the clever revision techniques you will learn from these blog posts. This is the big difference between success and failure. Freeing up time before we move on to the quality of your study.

Set a target for marks

There is a total of 300 marks up for grabs. Your distinction is 210 – let’s add a safety margin and aim for 225. This gives you a standard of 75% to achieve in all that you do. So, for your practical project you get 75 out of 100 and the same for the two theory exams. For each question you answer, you need to achieve two thirds. There are twenty questions worth 8 marks and two questions worth 20 marks.

For the 8 mark questions – keep revising until you hit 6 marks consistently.

For the 20 mark questions – keep revising until you hit 15 marks consistently.

Download your free study plan template from the Resources tab of our Nebosh page.

Pre-course preparation

By now you will have weighted your NEBOSH knowledge against the learning outcomes. You will have an idea of strength and weakness across the syllabus. Using the number 3 rating (very poor), make a note to yourself of subjects to work on. Download the official NEBOSH guidance documents – links to all documents can be found in the Resources tab at the bottom of our NEBOSH page.

For specific subjects such as CDM, Fire and COSHH,  you will find links to useful guidance reading in the Resources tab of each course page.

Devote a minimum of 1 hour per day reading to the guidance. Use the material at work wherever possible by choosing a relevant subject and carry out short safety inductions, mini training sessions or add to safety committee agendas for discussion.

This can be done prior to beginning your course and all the way towards the exam date. You are sure to be primed and ready for your tutor who will build your expertise and knowledge.

Look out for the next post on quality of study.

Training is an investment for success