I am a member of the Irish Photographic Federation which is the umbrella body for amateur photography in Ireland, and have attained both their Licentiateship and Associateship distinctions. 

My observations on the Licenciateship distincation are that: 

• Mixed panels and B&W panels tend to fare a little worse than colour panels. I can’t say that this is a rule, but it would seem that it is easier to have an initial visual impact with a colour panel. With a black and white panel the images need to be quite strong and have good contrast and be very well printed. 
• Many panels fail not because the images are weak but because the panel itself lacks balance and cohesion.

Even though not all of the photos in my L-panel are strong photos, the panel sits well together. The top center image is probably the strongest image and is looking directly ahead. The focus point of the eye in this image is balanced with the point of focus on the tulip in the photo immediately beneath it. The portraits are well balanced, forming a triangle in the panel, as do the flowers and butterfly. The sunrise photos are probably a little too orange, but at least there are two of them in the panel. (I got the colour temperature wrong when converting these from Raw, but I didn’t realise that until relatively recently!).