Guide to pass Dutch Inburgering examen 🇳🇱
As an expat living in the Netherlands, I can understand visa anxiety is real. Sharing my Inburgering exam experience and a list of self-learning resources that helped me pass within half a year. Hope this will help your journey, let’s together improve on the charming language of Dutch 😉
Before the Exam — Register
You can find every information on DUO website. Click on “Inloggen Mijn Inburgering” – this would be the place to register for your exams and check your results.
*Disclaimer: I’ve complete mine exams in 2022, hence some following links in this article may be updated by DUO. For latest news, please always refer to : https://www.inburgeren.nl/en/
After registering for an exam, you will receive a letter from DUO 1 week before the exam date. You need to present this letter on the exam day, so don’t lose it. If you have not received anything, your email confirmation also will work, but best to call DUO to confirm.
Exam Day
A typical exam day would be as following:
- Before leaving for the exam hall, check if you have your letter from DUO and Identity Card with you.
- Arrive 30 minutes before the exam commences.
- Check in for the exam. The receptionist will check your ID and inform you once again no personal belongings are allowed in the exam hall. You will be asked to store your personal belongings in a locker. Keep everything in the locker (your jacket, watch, mobile phone…), but keep your ID and letter with you.
- After few minutes sitting at the waiting area, a staff will guide you to your exam hall (‘zaal’ is the dutch word for hall). You will be asked again for your ID, and then being guided to the delegated seat. All instructions will be clearly given in Dutch.
You may notice I am not sharing any exam details in the following guide, and yes, this is intentional. At the start of exam you are asked not to disclose any exam contents, so keep that in mind.
After the Exam — Getting results
Results usually come out fast. You shall be receiving a physical letter within 2 weeks. In my case, I took my listening exam on Feb 25th. saw my result via ‘mijn inburgering’ website around Mar 4th, and received the physical letter with scores on Mar 9th.
In the following sections, I will go through how to prepare for each exams and learning tips:
01Lezen
Reading
How did the exam go?
Reading exam is arguably the most easy to accomplish. I highly recommend to start with reading and boost your confidence level. The exam lasts 65 minutes; however, you may leave the exam hall early (in my case, I left 30 minutes prior to the ending time).
How did I prepare?
Practice exams
The standard set to get started would be from DUO oefenen, the official practise exams: https://www.inburgeren.nl/examen-doen/oefenen. You only need to aim for more than 18 out of 25 correct, which guarantees you a passing score of 6 out of 10.
If the above is not enough for you, I also found this great set of exams from Ad appel: https://www.exercisesinburgering.nl/inburgering-buitenland/leesvaardigheid. These practice exams are great to get familiarise with reading and answering on a computer.
Build up Daily Reading Touch-points
To improve your reading skills, I find it useful to establish some ‘daily reading touch-points’. My trick is to follow NOS Jeugdjournaal https://jeugdjournaal.nl/ or other Dutch news sources on Instagram. Try to get used to reading small bits of texts, then translate to get the full meanings. In this way, along with the daily scrolling, you get your healthy dose of practise. The best part with news articles is that you get to learn new vocabularies in context.
02 Luisteren
Listening exam
How did the exam go?
Listening exam lasts 45 minutes and you may repeat the audio tracks as many times as you want. My trick is to not get fixated on a certain question if you don’t get it. Simply move on to the next one. In the end, you can always take your time to revisit the ones you’re unsure of.
How did I prepare?
Practice exams
Before jumping into the practice exams, what works for me is to first follow along this great set of listening practises from DutchPod 101: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_GMzGfcTSzFV5GpISIp3YW-fArbac0sL What I liked about this series is its brilliant use of images (helpful to understand the reasoning process) and coverage on a wide variety of topics. Another good source is from Bart de Pau: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUOa-qvvZolCEn41d_FxkuWmGwu7-4Xj5 . This listening exercise features news footage, very similar to the videos you will see in the listening exams.
Once you gained enough knowledge, you can continue to the DUO oefenen: https://www.inburgeren.nl/examen-doen/oefenen. No need to stress as you only need 18 out of 25 correct.
Gym/Transport Time, Listening Time
Any scratch time is the best time to listen to short audios. Make good use of these random times.
Schrijven
Writing
How did the exam go?
Writing exam lasts 40 minutes and is the only exam you will not be using a computer but answering on paper. No need to bring your own pen. You will directly take the pen you used to sign during registration. Useful tip, you can practise on the left blank side, and then write the final answer. In case you accidentally made a mistake, just cross it off.
The writing exam consists of four questions, typical questions are —
(1) Email response: Rescheduling appointments, changing plans…any work/everyday/school scenarios you may need to communicate via email. Keep your message short, and remember ways to greet and end an email.
(2) Writing short articles: For short articles, the length of sentences only need to be 3–5. It is all about being able to introduce and express your personal opinion on things, places, or people.
(3) Filling in forms: Probably the most applicable one to our everyday life, you can see forms in police station, hospitals, gyms, literally everywhere. For these form writing you don’t necessary need to reply in full sentences, but you need to get the context write. I will suggest to start paying attention to your everyday form filling experience, remember what are the Dutch words for some important personal information.
(4) Describe pictures: This can be comparing two pictures with one another, or describing a sequence of event. I find it useful to refresh your knowledge on comparison adjectives (i.e. graag — liever — liefst), and also time adverbs for sequencing (i.e. eerst — daarna — ten slotte).
How did I prepare?
Practice exams
Try to find different scenarios you may need to use your writing skills: filling in a form, writing a email, writing a card for birthday part, … Make sure you remember some standard phrases to congratulate someone, make excuses, and propose a different plan. These will come in handy in responding to various situations. For those who have Dutch colleagues and friends, it is also helpful to start texting (bugging) them only in Dutch.
Keep it simple
If you take a look at the example answers from Ad appel here: https://adappel.nl/lesmateriaal/a2-inburgering, you’ll find out that answers can be simple and short. Don’t over-complicate your sentences. Additionally, try to find keywords from the question body you can reuse in the answers.
04Spreken
Speaking
How did the exam go?
Speaking exam lasts 35 minutes, and consist of two parts —
(1) Recording your response: You will be asked a short question to respond to. You can record your answers as many times as you want, but don’t waste too much time at the beginning.
(2) Select a response: You can select a respond that is appropriate to a conversation. Pay attention to basic sentence structures and grammar rules.
How did I prepare?
Practice exam
The DUO oefenen: https://www.inburgeren.nl/examen-doen/oefenen has some example questions, and you can find example answers from Ad appel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXhM-IdBEVjhhOEBlTfuIcyDExOyLQvG5 .
Keep it simple
Again, do not over-complicate your answer. Just stick to the basic sentence structures. A great youtube channel I would recommend is Dutchies to Be: https://www.youtube.com/c/DutchiestobeLearnDutchwithKim . You can mimic how Kim speaks, getting messages across in simplest words.
05KNM
Knowledge towards Dutch Society
How did the exam go?
KNM exam lasts 45 minutes. I would really suggest to do listening exam first, so you have a good skill of listening to understand the video context.
How did I prepare?
Practise Book
One simple answer — Buy a KNM book and study. If you are seeking more resources, Dipa Kumari has a good recommendation list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0pi1_Ej7MY.
06How to Apply for Exemption for ONA
ONA stands for Orientation on the Dutch Labor Market. The exam consists of 2 parts: create assignments (namely, your portfolio) & a 64 hours ONA course or a final interview. In other words, this exam is to ensure you have the language skills to work and look for a job.
For those who have job, you don’t need to do ONA. However, you do need to apply for an exemption. You can find the option under Mijn Inburgering > Examen > ONA > hit that request exemption button. The evaluation takes approximately 8 weeks.
07Other Learning Resources
Het Klokhuis https://www.youtube.com/c/klokhuis
Since Klokhuis is a kids’ show, it covers different fun topics in basic words.
NPO op 3 https://www.youtube.com/c/nosop3
I especially love the Explainer series, breaking down latest news in a detailed manner. Great to keep up to date on recent events.
Dutchies to Be https://www.youtube.com/c/DutchiestobeLearnDutchwithKim
I love her channel, she explains everything so patiently. The videos covers practical usage of Dutch, and some commonly misunderstood grammars. Some clips are even shot on the street or cafes, showing you the actual context of uses.
Learn Dutch with Bart de Pau https://www.youtube.com/c/LearndutchOrg
Probably the most renowned one, great to build A1 level foundations.
De Avondshow met Arjen Lubach | VPRO
https://www.youtube.com/c/vprodeavondshowmetarjenlubach
Now this is for the advanced ones, but really great talk show.
Xueheyu Instagram https://www.instagram.com/xueheyu.nl/?hl=en
This instagram shares commonly used Dutch phrases (uitdrukking) and frequently mistaken words in example sentences.
For Mandarin speakers, I recommend you to research on the Xueheyu institute. Especially miss Hueshuang Lin has been a great guide on my journey learning Dutch.
Ambiguous Changes for New Civic Integration Law
From 1 January 2022, the new Civic Integration Act 2021 is made into effect, increasing the language requirement from A2 to B1 level (https://www.inburgeren.nl/nieuwsberichten/artikel.jsp?cid=tcm:94-140461).
If you are obligated to integrate on or after 1 January 2022 (i.e. people staying in the NL with partner visa, etc.), you will likely get a letter for your integration journey. Your municipality will guide you through the process.
As for those who voluntarily choose to integrate (like myself), now, this is where it becomes ambiguous. There is no clear indication whether we suit A2 or B1 at this very moment, but we can likely expect exams will become more difficult in the near future.
Despite how much I love language learning, my strategy is to acquire the diploma asap whilst it still remains in A2 level. I would love to gain my working freedom and prefer not to have my visa status depending on work contracts.
Dat is alles, succes! (That is all, success!)
Winnie Chen
I am a UX / Interaction Designer based in the Netherlands. Passionate at fusing technology & human value into meaningful interaction. My inspiration? Designing for an inclusive future.
