Inburgering guide

How to prepare the Staatsexamen NT2 Programma II exam

What the Staatsexamen NT2 Programma II (B2) looks like, which units of our learning path you need, and how we help you pass.

Updated October 2026 · 22 min read

Programma II is the B2 exam for people who want to study or work at HBO or university level, in a Dutch-taught programme or a professional job. You don't need to pass Programma I first.

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 exam looks like

The same four exams as Programma I, at a higher level, all done on a computer at one of six exam locations in the Netherlands.

  • Lezen (100 minutes): 36 multiple-choice questions about six more demanding texts. The Van Dale Pocketwoordenboek NT2 is allowed.
  • Luisteren (90 minutes): about 40 questions about conversations and a few short films from work, study and daily life. You hear each fragment only once.
  • Schrijven (100 minutes): from completing sentences to medium-length texts in which you describe a problem and propose a solution, sometimes based on a table or a graph. The same dictionary is allowed.
  • Spreken (about 25 minutes): short and medium tasks, plus one longer talk of two minutes for which you get preparation time first.

Each part is scored on its own, and a score of 500 or higher is a pass. You receive the diploma once you have passed all four. The scoring and the time rules work the same as for Programma I.

Your route at The Dutch Online Academy

Choose Staatsexamen NT2 II as your goal and your learning path puts everything in the right order.

  • The lessons from your first words to B2 (98 units, A0.1 to B2.16).
  • The B1 exam lessons during B1, so you know the exam format and the core exam skills early.
  • The B2 exam lessons during B2, from B2.1 onwards: what changes in Programma II, reading academic and professional texts, listening to lectures, interviews and discussions, sentence tasks and business emails, the medium-length writing task where you argue a position, presenting a graph or a situation, and arguing and choosing.
  • Half-length, timed B2 exam practice at the end, after B2.16.

How we help you pass

  • The path grows with you. Vocabulary and grammar build up unit by unit, up to the structures B2 texts are made of: connectors, nominal style, the passive and reported speech.
  • The skills the exam rewards: structure, nuance and formal register, practised in exam-style tasks.
  • Model answers for every writing and speaking task.
  • Practice that comes back: what you learned earlier keeps returning in your practice.
  • Start for free with the whole A0 level and the B1 exam overview lesson.

Pick Staatsexamen NT2 II as your goal and start your first lesson today.