Learning Dutch and thinking about a test to learn better or demonstrate your knowledge?
Here I provide an overview of my experience preparing for/passing the NT2 Programma II (B2) test:
What is it?
It is the official government-run test for Dutch. It is the highest level, the other (lower) levels being the B1 test and I think lowest what is/was the inburgering level. There is an alternative exam run by the Dutch language organization that goes higher and I do not know much about it (https://cnavt.org/het-examen-nederlands).
Signing up and attending:
Easy, the official side is really well managed. The only thing to keep in mind is the length of the process. There are usually enough places I would think but the deadline is still early (2 months before?). If you fail you would have waited several weeks for the result after the test and then again several weeks before you get to attend an exam. It is also very time-intensive with the four subtests spread over 4 days, in my case Tuesday and Wednesday in two consecutive weeks. Arriving and test-sitting is quite ordinary with id check and no further hoops really.
Preparation:
One issue is that there is no experience sharing beyond the basics anywhere online. I could only find two YouTube channels and a few experiences on Reddit.
Again, the official website has previous years exams (https://www.staatsexamensnt2.nl/).
Grading/passing:
The official website also has some info on the grading and passing requirements. In essence, you need to get roughly half the available points in each subsection to pass and there is no grade beyond “passed”.
Material:
There is an official dictionary that is potentially helpful to buy because it can be taken with in some parts of the exam and then used for spelling or word meaning.
There are also dedicated books, which I did not have or know much about but they could be handy as I imagine they deal with the material in more detail.
Subjective opinion of the test:
Very easy (do not tell the organisers). Maybe it is an official test and therefore easier because of its official function as a gatekeeper for working in the Netherlands or studying. If you compare it to the English tests for example it would be much easier I would think. Taking the test takes longer because of the split days but the content itself is less tricky I think.
Test overall:
The test consists of writing, speaking, listening and reading sections. Subjectively the difficulty order is exactly that because of different factors such as possible mistakes and knowledge required or time pressure. Time is generally not really an issue though.
It is important to understand the evaluation criteria for each section for which I would recommend reading the official evaluation guidelines. For speaking and writing it is a balance of good things you did (mostly the basics such as whether you gave the number of examples asked for) and the mistakes you made.
Writing section:
I thought the dictionary was most useful here because it allowed for spelling corrections and looking for other words. The main surprise here was that the initial questions really simply asked to give brief one-sentence answers. The evaluation incentivizes simpler answers with fewer mistakes it seems.
Speaking section:
This is an automatically paced section like listening where you automatically go through sections. Again, the incentive is to make fewer mistakes with simple sentences. The structure of the answers evolve with certain structures coming in handy. For example, you first give one opinion and one example, later you give both sides of the coin and examples for both. That is interesting to practice to have certain blueprints of structuring words in your mind.
Listening section:
The other mechanically paced section where you get multiple choice questions. Not very difficult. Wrong answers do not get punished so it is useful to always answer something.
Reading section:
Multiple choice questions on different texts. You get the same text for a few question before moving on. Again, wrong answers do not get punished so it is useful to always answer something.