B1 Schrijven: the three task types and how they are marked

The exam

You type your answers on a computer. There are 12 tasks and you have 100 minutes. You can do them in any order and go back to change an answer. There is no spell-check, but you may use the paper Van Dale Pocketwoordenboek NT2. A warning appears 15 minutes before the end.

The three task types

The tasks are about work, study and daily life.

• 8 sentence tasks: you finish one sentence in an email or message. Often the task asks for a specific construction, like a sentence with omdat, a sentence that starts with a given word, or te + infinitive.
• 2 partial writing tasks: you fill in a form or finish a short message.
• 2 short writing tasks: you write a short email that covers all the points the task asks for.

What the assessors look for

Two trained assessors mark your writing. For a sentence task, they look at two things: does your sentence do what the task asks, and is it grammatically correct, including the required construction.

For the longer tasks they look at content, grammar, spelling, coherence and word choice. Content counts most: if every point the task asks for is in your text, that is the starting point for a good content score.

Mistakes that cost points

According to the official marking rules, these cost points:

• Leaving out a point the task asks for.
• Copying full sentences from the task. Copied sentences get no points.
• Ignoring the required construction in a sentence task.
• Missing articles. Mistakes with de or het are not counted in the writing exam, but a missing article is.
• Extra sentences full of mistakes. Extra text without mistakes does not hurt.

Your content does not have to be true

The assessors don't check whether what you write is true. It only has to fit the task. You can invent a reason or a name.