The reading exam is the part most people assume they can pass on language alone. Then they sit down, meet a letter from the gemeente full of words they have never seen, and watch the clock run out.
Lezen is not really a vocabulary test. It is a test of whether you can find specific information in a Dutch text quickly. That is a skill, and it can be trained separately from your Dutch.
The short answer: the A2 Lezen exam is taken on a computer and lasts 65 minutes. You read everyday Dutch texts, such as letters, notices and advertisements, and answer multiple-choice questions about them. DUO's official practice exams contain 25 questions, which is the best number to plan your timing around. The single most effective change you can make is to read the question before you read the text.
What the Lezen exam actually is
| A2 Lezen | |
|---|---|
| Where | On a computer, at a DUO exam location |
| How long | 65 minutes for A2 |
| Questions | Multiple choice about short everyday texts. The official practice exams have 25 questions |
| Texts | Letters, notices, advertisements, leaflets, forms, short news items. All the kind of Dutch that lands on your doormat |
| Dictionary | Not allowed. Bring valid ID and arrive on time |
| Moving around | You can go back to earlier questions and change your answers while the time is running |
DUO does not publish an official pass mark for this exam, so treat any specific number you see online with caution. What you can rely on is the format and the time, and both are on the official exam page at inburgeren.nl.
First check which level you need: A2 or B1
This is worth five minutes before you buy any study material, because preparing for the wrong level is the most expensive mistake in the whole process.
Under the 2021 integration law (Wet inburgering 2021), the standard language level is B1 for people in the B1-route. A2 is not automatically your level any more.
You can be moved down to A2 (this is called afschalen), but only within the B1-route, only after you have made significant effort, which in practice means around 600 hours of lessons at a recognised school, and only if your municipality agrees and records it. It can also be done for some exam parts and not others.
Where to check your own level: your PIP (the personal integration plan your gemeente made with you) states your route and level. You can also log in to Mijn Inburgering on inburgeren.nl with your DigiD. If those two disagree, ask your contact at the gemeente. Do not rely on what a friend or a school told you.
If you fall under the older rules, or you are taking the exam to apply for naturalisation, A2 may still be the level that applies to you. The rest of this article is about the A2 exam, but the method works for B1 too.
What the texts look like
Nothing in this exam is literary. Everything is the practical Dutch of daily life: an appointment letter from the health centre, a notice about rubbish collection, rules at work, a leaflet from the library, an advertisement with conditions in the small print.
Here is a text of the kind you will meet, written the way they are written:
Beste bewoner,
Vanaf maandag 6 oktober vernieuwen wij de stoep in de Kerkstraat. Het werk duurt ongeveer drie weken. In die periode kunt u uw auto niet in de straat parkeren. U kunt gratis parkeren op het terrein achter de supermarkt. Hiervoor heeft u een parkeerkaart nodig. Deze kaart haalt u op bij het wijkkantoor, van maandag tot en met donderdag tussen 9.00 en 16.00 uur. Neem uw identiteitsbewijs mee.
A typical question would be: Wat moet u doen om gratis te parkeren? The answer is not "park behind the supermarket". It is that you must first collect a parking card at the district office, and bring ID. The text rewards someone who reads to the end of the instruction rather than stopping at the first thing that looks like an answer.
Notice the words doing the real work: vanaf (from), ongeveer (approximately), hiervoor (for this), van maandag tot en met donderdag (Monday through Thursday, including Thursday). These small words decide the correct answer far more often than the difficult-looking nouns do.
The method: read the question first
Most candidates read the whole text carefully, then read the question, then read the whole text again to find the answer. That is two full readings for every text, and it is why people run out of time.
Do it in this order instead:
- Read the question first. Now you know what you are looking for.
- Read the answer options. They tell you what kind of information matters: a time, a price, a person, a reason.
- Scan the text for that one thing. Your eyes are hunting for a date, a name or a number, not reading a story.
- Read the two sentences around what you found. The correct answer nearly always depends on the sentence before or after, not the one word you spotted.
- Check the other options are wrong before you click. This takes ten seconds and catches most mistakes.
You are not being tested on whether you understood the whole letter. You are being tested on whether you can find one piece of information in it.
Timing: what 65 minutes really means
With 25 questions in 65 minutes you have roughly two and a half minutes per question, including reading the text it belongs to. That is comfortable if you read once with purpose, and impossible if you read everything twice.
Two habits protect your time:
- Skip and return. If a question has you stuck after about two minutes, mark your best guess, move on, and come back. You can change answers while the time runs, and an easy question later is worth more than a hard question now.
- Never leave an answer blank. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a guess is strictly better than nothing.
Three traps that cost points
1. The answer that is almost right
Usually one wrong option looks very close to the text, with a single word changed: altijd (always) instead of meestal (usually), moet (must) instead of mag (may), a Tuesday instead of a Thursday. Read the options as carefully as you read the text.
2. Your own knowledge
If you know from real life that the gemeente is open on Friday, and the letter says Monday to Thursday, the answer is Monday to Thursday. The answer must come from this text, even when you happen to know better.
3. Negatives
Questions like Wat is niet waar? or Wat hoeft u niet mee te nemen? reverse everything. Many points are lost here by people who understood the text perfectly. When you see niet, geen or hoeft niet in the question, slow down for one second and make sure you know which direction you are answering in.
The words that keep appearing
Exam texts reuse a small set of practical words. These are worth learning before anything else, because they carry the meaning of the sentence the question is about.
| Dutch | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| uiterlijk | at the latest | Meld u uiterlijk 1 juni aan. |
| verplicht / vrijwillig | obligatory / voluntary | Deelname is verplicht. |
| vanaf / tot en met | from / up to and including | vanaf 6 oktober, tot en met donderdag |
| aanvragen / aanmelden | to apply for / to register | U kunt een vergoeding aanvragen. |
| de vergoeding | the reimbursement | U krijgt een vergoeding van 50 euro. |
| het formulier invullen | to fill in the form | Vul het formulier volledig in. |
| meenemen / ophalen | to bring / to collect | Neem uw identiteitsbewijs mee. |
| geldig | valid | De kaart is geldig tot 31 december. |
| behalve | except | Elke dag open, behalve op zondag. |
| minstens / hoogstens | at least / at most | U moet minstens 18 jaar zijn. |
Learn these as whole sentences, not single words. The exam gives you sentences, so that is the form your memory should have them in.
A four-week preparation plan
This assumes about half an hour a day. If you have less time, stretch it over eight weeks rather than cutting the practice exams.
| Week | What to do |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Do one official DUO practice exam without timing it. The goal is to see the format, not to score well. Write down every word you did not know. |
| Week 2 | Read one real Dutch text a day: a letter you received, a notice in your building, a page from your insurer. Look up five words per text, no more. |
| Week 3 | Practise the question-first method on short texts. Learn the word list above as sentences. |
| Week 4 | Do two practice exams with a timer, on a computer, in one sitting. Review every mistake and write down why the right answer was right. |
Reviewing your mistakes is the part people skip, and it is the part that actually moves your score. A wrong answer you understand is worth more than three correct guesses.
DUO publishes free official practice exams for Lezen on inburgeren.nl. Use them first, because they are the real format. Our Lezen practice pack adds more texts in the same style, with an explanation of why each answer is correct, which is the thing the official practice exams do not give you.
On exam day
- Bring valid ID. Without it you cannot take the exam.
- Arrive early. Arriving late can mean you are refused entry and lose your exam fee.
- You cannot bring a dictionary or any notes.
- If a text looks frightening at first glance, start with its questions anyway. You almost never need to understand every word.
- If you do not know a word, read on. The sentence after it usually makes the meaning clear, and the exam is testing comprehension, not vocabulary.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the inburgeringsexamen Lezen take?
The A2 reading exam lasts 65 minutes. At B1 level, the Staatsexamen NT2 reading exam lasts 110 minutes, and at B2 it lasts 100 minutes.
How many questions are in the Lezen exam?
DUO's official A2 practice exams contain 25 multiple-choice questions in 65 minutes. DUO does not publish the exact number for the real exam, so plan your timing around 25.
Can I use a dictionary during the Lezen exam?
No. You may not bring your own materials to the inburgeringsexamen. Bring valid identification and make sure you arrive on time.
Can I go back and change my answers?
Yes. You can move forwards and backwards through the exam and change an answer as long as the time is still running. Use this: skip anything you get stuck on and return to it at the end.
Do I need A2 or B1 for the reading exam?
Under the Wet inburgering 2021 the standard is B1 for people in the B1-route. Moving down to A2 is possible after significant effort, roughly 600 hours of lessons, and only if your gemeente records it in your PIP. Check your PIP or Mijn Inburgering rather than assuming.
What happens if I fail Lezen?
You can retake it. You register again through Mijn Inburgering and pay the exam fee again. Only the part you failed has to be retaken, not the whole exam.
Is the Lezen exam harder than Luisteren?
Most people find Lezen easier, because you control the pace and can reread the text. In Luisteren the audio moves on whether you are ready or not. If you are short of time, prepare Luisteren more and Lezen smarter.
Where to go from here
If you do one thing after reading this, make it the question-first habit. It costs nothing, it needs no new vocabulary, and it is the difference between finishing the exam and running out of time.
Our Lezen exam page explains the format in more detail, and the inburgeringsexamen overview covers all five parts and how they fit together. If your Dutch itself is the bottleneck rather than your exam technique, the A2 course is the place to fix that first.