A few weeks ago, I wrote about the requirements for integration for those of us who have migrated to the Netherlands as well as about the difficulties in meeting this requirement. For those of us who are inburgeringsverplicht, one of the ways we can fulfill this requirement is by taking the Staatexamen Nederlands als Tweede Taal NT2. This exam has a higher language level than the inburgeringsexamen but does not include the sections Kennis Nederlandse Maatschapij and Oriëntatie Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt. Those who are inburgeringsverplicht as of 2015 and decide to take the Staatsexamen NT2 must also take the section of the work force to complete their integration requirement. I decided to take the Staatsexamen to fulfill my integration requirement.

Photo by albertogp123 found in Flickr.com

The Staatsexamen NT2 is made up of four sections: schrijven, spreken, luisteren and lezen. DUO allots two days to complete the exam. On the first day, I completed the schrijven and spreken sections. For the schrijven, you can work at your own pace. In the first section, you must fill in the sentence based on the information you have available such as verb tense and context. The following is an example taken from a sample test in the website for the College voor Toetsen en Examens

 

Vanmorgen viel in een groot gedeelte van de stad de stroom uit. Het gevolg hiervan was dat ______________________________________________________________. (Staatsexamen Schrijven 2009)

The following sections require you to write emails or letters related to a specific topic. Most of the examples I’ve seen deal with work-related situations. For this section, you are allowed to use a dictionary. After the exam, we had about an hour break to eat lunch and relax.

The second section was spreken and this had to be done in the time allotted. You cannot work faster because you must follow a recording. You hear a prompt and you must respond to it. One example could be a friend trying to convince you to skip a meeting to go shopping. You must decide if you want to go and give him/her a reason for it.

The following day was dedicated to luisteren and lezen. For me these were the more tedious sections. During the listening exercises, you might hear an interview with a doctor and he/she talks about what their day is like and why they like their job. You must follow along with each question in order to answer it. The last section, lezen, includes different types of texts that inform or persuade. Based on the information you read, you answer the questions. For this section, you can use a dictionary.

Five weeks after you take the exam, you can consult your grade on the DUO website and six weeks after you take the exam, you also receive the score by mail. If you failed any of the sections, you can take only the sections failed rather than the whole exam.

Have any of you taken the Staatsexamen NT2? What have been your experiences with this exam?