Exam tip B1 lezen: reading long texts

The tips in this article can be handy if you are about to make a Lezen exam for B1. Everybody is different, but these tips help for most students!

Use the same routine for every text, and give each text about 18 minutes.

1. Overview (2–3 min). Read the title, the subheadings, the first paragraph and the last paragraph. Ask yourself: what is the topic, and what does the writer want to say about it? That is your first guess at the main idea.

2. Questions (12 min). Read the first question and its options before you look for the answer. Questions usually follow the order of the text, and many name a paragraph ("alinea 3"). Go to that place and read it carefully, including the sentence before and after.

• Main idea (hoofdgedachte): the right answer covers the whole text. Wrong options are often too small (one detail) or too big ("iedereen", "altijd").
• Details: scan for a keyword from the question: a name, a number, a day. Then read that sentence slowly. Watch for niet, geen, alleen and vooral.
• Word meaning: put each option in the place of the word. Which one still makes sense in this sentence? The first meaning in the dictionary is not always the right one here.

3. Check (2–3 min). Did you answer every question? A guess has a one-in-three chance; an empty answer has none.

The dictionary costs time. Look up at most two or three words per text, and only words that you need for a question.

Component · Lezen

• Task type · Long texts: hoofdgedachte (gist of text or paragraph), details (finding information) and woordbetekenis (meaning in context). Text purpose, signal words and the writer's opinion follow in EX-B1.3.
• What the real task looks like · 110 minutes. The texts are in a paper booklet; the questions and answer options are on the computer. 36 multiple-choice questions on 6 texts, so about 6 questions and 18 minutes per text. Texts include articles, informative texts and practical texts (leaflets, rules, notices). The Van Dale Pocketwoordenboek NT2 is allowed.

Most common mistakes

1. Word-matching: picking the option that repeats words from the text, even though it says something different.
2. A detail as main idea: choosing something that is true for one paragraph, not for the whole text.
3. Own opinion or world knowledge: answering what you think is true, not what the text says.
4. Missing small words that change the meaning: niet, geen, alleen, vooral, soms, nog.
5. Getting stuck on one hard paragraph and losing time for the next text.