Inburgering guide

How to prepare the Inburgering B1 exam

What the inburgering B1 route asks of you, which units of our learning path you need, and how we help you pass.

Updated October 2026 · 22 min read

If you came to the Netherlands on or after 1 January 2022 and have to integrate, the Wet inburgering 2021 applies to you, and for most people that means the B1 route. B1 is the level where you follow the news, explain your opinion and deal with work and official letters in Dutch. It takes longer than A2, and it opens more doors.

This page is part of our guide How the Dutch inburgeringsexamen works, which explains every exam, what it costs and how to book it.

What the B1 route asks of you

  • Four language exams: Lezen, Luisteren, Schrijven and Spreken. In the B1 route these are the Staatsexamen NT2 exams, usually Programma I (B1). You take them on a computer at an exam location, each part on its own, and each part gets its own score: 500 or higher is a pass.
  • KNM: questions about everyday life in the Netherlands, from housing and work to health care and how the country is run.
  • What your gemeente arranges: the participation statement (PVT) and the labour market and participation module (MAP) are part of your route, but your municipality organises them.
  • A safety net: if B1 turns out to be out of reach, your gemeente can let you switch to A2, after at least 600 hours of Dutch lessons at an approved school.

How the B1 exams work

The four language exams of the B1 route are the exams of the Staatsexamen NT2 Programma I. Each part is a separate exam with its own score, and a score of 500 or higher is a pass. Our page How to prepare the Staatsexamen NT2 Programma I exam explains each part, how the scoring works, how to divide your time and the most common mistakes.

Your route at The Dutch Online Academy

Choose Inburgering B1 as your goal and your learning path puts everything in the right order.

  • The lessons from your first words to B1 (79 units, A0.1 to B1.26).
  • KNM during A2. The KNM lessons unlock from A2.5 onwards, so KNM is done before B1 gets busy, and the KNM practice exam (40 questions) at the end of A2 shows how close you are.
  • The B1 exam lessons during B1, from B1.2 onwards: how the B1 exam works and what a score of 500 means (free), reading long texts for the main idea and the details, argumentative and instructive texts, listening to news, conversations and explanations, formal and informal emails, short structured texts, short and medium speaking tasks, and the words that come back in every exam: work, government and education.
  • Half-length, timed B1 exam practice at the end, after B1.26.

How we help you pass

  • A ladder, not a cliff. Each unit adds a little vocabulary and one main grammar point, and the complexity grows from unit to unit.
  • The format before exam day. You know the question types, the instructions on the screen and how to divide your time.
  • Writing and speaking with a model. You see what a good answer looks like before you write your own.
  • Practice that comes back. What you learned in earlier units keeps coming back in your practice.
  • Start for free with the whole A0 level, the first KNM lesson and the B1 exam overview lesson.

Pick Inburgering B1 as your goal and start your first lesson today.