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Lezen · A2 · B1 · Exam tips · 7 min read

Reading exam tips: find the answer without reading everything

In the reading exam of the inburgeringsexamen and the Staatsexamen NT2 you get real-life texts: a letter from the gemeente, an advert, an email from a school, a page from a website, a short news article. Many learners fail this part not because their Dutch is too weak, but because they run out of time. They read every text slowly from the first word to the last, look up every word in their head, and then still have to search for the answer.

You don't need to understand every word to answer the questions. You need to find the right sentence and understand that one well. Here is how.

1. Read the question first, then the text

Before you start on a text, look at the title and then read the questions about it. Now you know what you are looking for. A question like "Wanneer is de bibliotheek op zaterdag open?" tells you to look for zaterdag and a time. You can skip everything else.

This feels wrong at first, because at school we learn to read the text first. But in the exam it saves you minutes per text, and it helps you understand, because your brain knows what matters.

2. Find the key word, then scan for it

Pick one or two words from the question that will probably also be in the text: a day, a name, a price, a place. Then let your eyes move fast over the text until you see that word. Read the sentence around it carefully, plus the sentence before and after.

Vraag: Hoeveel kost een kaartje voor kinderen?(Key words: kinderen, and a price with €)

Tekst: Kinderen tot 12 jaar betalen € 4,50.(Found: scan for kinderen and € signs)

3. Watch out for synonyms

The question doesn't always use the same word as the text. Exam makers like to test whether you understand a word in other forms. So if you can't find your key word, think of words with the same meaning.

Vraag: Wat moet u meenemen?(Text may say: Neem ... mee, or Vergeet niet ...)

Vraag: Wanneer is het gesloten?(Text may say: dicht, or niet open)

Vraag: Is het gratis?(Text may say: u hoeft niet te betalen, or kosteloos)

4. Let signal words guide you

Small words like maar, want, daarom and toch tell you how a text is built. They are often exactly where the answer is. Maar tells you something different comes next, so the second half of the sentence is usually the important one. Daarom points to a result, and want or omdat to a reason.

Het zwembad is normaal elke dag open, maar in de zomer is het op maandag dicht.(The answer to "when is it closed?" comes after maar)

De weg is afgesloten. Daarom rijdt bus 12 een andere route.(Why does the bus take a different route? Look before daarom)

5. Guess unknown words from the context

You will always meet words you don't know. Don't stop. First ask: do I need this word for the question? Often you don't. If you do, look at the words around it, and look inside the word: Dutch builds long words from short ones.

de huisvuilophaaldag(huis + vuil + ophalen + dag: the day the rubbish is collected)

de wachtlijst(wachten + lijst: a waiting list)

If the word is in a sentence like "Neem uw paspoort of een ander geldig identiteitsbewijs mee", you can guess from paspoort that an identiteitsbewijs is some kind of ID document. That is enough to answer the question.

6. Check every answer option against the text

With multiple-choice questions, the wrong options are often almost right. They use words from the text, but say something slightly different: the wrong day, the opposite, or something the text doesn't say at all. For each option, find the place in the text and ask: does the text really say this?

• Is it the opposite? Watch for niet, geen, nooit and alleen.
• Is it too strong? Altijd and iedereen are often wrong if the text says meestal or veel mensen.
• Is it in the text at all? If you can't point to the sentence, it's probably wrong, even if it sounds logical.

7. Manage your time

Don't get stuck. If a question takes too long, pick your best guess, mark it, and move on. Come back at the end if you have time. An unanswered question always scores zero, and a guess sometimes scores. Short texts with one or two questions are often quicker points than long texts, so do those first if the exam lets you move between texts.

Your reading routine

• Look at the title and the type of text: letter, advert, website, news.
• Read the question and choose a key word.
• Scan for the key word, or a word with the same meaning.
• Read that sentence and the ones around it carefully.
• Check each option against the text, then answer and move on.

Like any skill, this gets faster with practice. In our trainer you do reading tasks with real-life Dutch texts, see the text and questions side by side, and get an explanation for every answer.