B1 Speaking exam

Sixteen tasks in two halves. Deel 1 is opgaven 1 to 8, the korte spreektaken, with 20 seconds of speaking time each and a maximum of 3 points per task. Deel 2 is opgaven 9 to 16, the middellange spreektaken, with 30 seconds of speaking time, 15 seconds of preparation before each, and a maximum of 13 points per task. That asymmetry is the whole design: Deel 2 carries most of the score.

The official instruction for Deel 1 tells you how short short means: Soms zijn enkele woorden al genoeg, soms moet u één of twee zinnen zeggen. Deel 2 asks for a longer answer and says you must use the information given to you. When a task carries pictures or a short text, you get 5 seconds in Deel 1 to look at it.

In the live exam a beep marks the start of your speaking time. The published practice papers strip it out except in the worked examples, which is worth knowing if you practise with them. The real thing signals when to start, and the openbaar examens mostly do not.

More than most preparation material suggests. Across the published Programma I papers, eight to ten of the sixteen tasks carry an illustration, and in the wider corpus of official loose tasks the share is higher still, around three quarters. A guide that treats pictures as an occasional extra is describing a different exam.

They come in three shapes. A single picture, most often in Deel 1: describe this place, describe this object so someone can find it. A two-picture task, less common but real. And the three-picture sequence, concentrated in Deel 2, which carries the literal instruction Gebruik hierbij alle plaatjes: use all the pictures. Those are narrate or instruct tasks: tell what you and the children did at the sea, explain to a colleague how to run the children's party.

Picture coverage is judged reasonably rather than mechanically. The published model says a candidate who described one or two of the three pictures in detail and used the whole time can still reach full marks on content. So the goal is a coherent thirty seconds that draws on the sequence, not a hurried checklist of three frames.

Each task names one speech act, and the range across a paper is wide. From a published Deel 1 set: give a clear instruction, state a reasoned preference between three options, persuade a friend to come anyway, describe a lost object so someone can find it, choose between Saturday and Sunday and justify it to your boss, advise someone how to arrive on time, describe a place from a picture, ask for help in a problem situation.

Deel 2 divides roughly in half. Three-picture sequence tasks where you narrate or instruct, and reasoned-argument tasks where you persuade, choose or give an opinion. Those state a minimum number of reasons outright: give two reasons why delivering pizzas is a bad idea, name at least two things to do differently, at least two reasons for your choice of sport. When a task names a number, that number is a scoring criterion.

Register shifts between tasks and it is scored. Some tasks address a friend or a fellow student, some address your boss or a colleague. Choosing je for an addressee the task made your manager, or u for a housemate, is a real error rather than a stylistic preference.

Two trained human assessors mark against a criterion model worth 128 points. Content aspects account for 64 (inhoud 32, woordenschat 24, woordkeus 8) and form aspects for the other 64: woord- en zinsvorming 32, uitspraak 24, tempo 8. Before any of that, each answer is checked against a preconditie: a comprehensible reaction, in Dutch, related to the situation. It is deliberately tolerant, but if it fails, nothing else on that task is assessed.

Three published rules change how you should answer. Producing the wrong speech act caps content at 1 point. If the task asked you to instruct and you described, the ceiling drops immediately. Reading the prompt aloud caps both content and sentence-formation at 1. And whether the argument is any good is explicitly not judged: Iets wat wij vreemd vinden, kan voor de spreker een prima reden zijn.

Then the rule that surprises everyone. Using your speaking time fully is part of the content score. On a two-argument task, one clear argument delivered while still speaking when the time ran out earns 3 points; the same single argument from a candidate who stopped well short earns 2. Two clear arguments earn 3 either way. Stopping early costs marks even when what you said was correct.

Our tip, not a DUO ruleAiming to be still talking as the window closes is a strategy we draw from that published tie-break. The rule is CvTE's; treating it as something to plan around is ours.

Woordkeus is about precision, not vocabulary size. The published examples are pointed: saying een pot met dat spul for a pot of paint, or één nummer kleiner instead of één maat kleiner, scores zero. That is not because the candidate lacked words, but because the word chosen was wrong. Reaching for the specific term you already know is worth more than reaching for an impressive one you do not.

Grammar errors are sorted into two categories, and the split is generous. Article errors and what follows from them, plurals and diminutives count as small errors. Wrong verb conjugation, word-order errors and dropping het as a personal pronoun count as ordinary ones. Answers are also split into long and short so that speaking more is not punished by producing more errors, which reinforces the point about using the full window.

Pronunciation carries 24 points and tempo 8, so how you sound is a quarter of the paper. Neither is about sounding Dutch; both are about being followable at a natural pace. The practical preparation is recording yourself against a clock, then listening back for the two things that actually cost marks: silences while you search for a word, and a word chosen approximately when you knew the right one.

Opgave: Pizza’s bezorgen. U werkt in een restaurant. Uw baas wil beginnen met het bezorgen van pizza’s met de auto. U denkt dat dat geen goed idee is. U hoort eerst uw baas. Baas: “Ik zat te denken: we gaan pizza’s bezorgen. Met de auto. Wat vind jij?” Overtuig uw baas dat het geen goed idee is. Noem twee redenen. U krijgt vijftien seconden om uw antwoord voor te bereiden. U hebt dertig seconden spreektijd.

Task: Delivering pizzas. You work in a restaurant. Your boss wants to start delivering pizzas by car. You think that is not a good idea. You hear your boss first. Boss: “I was thinking: we’ll start delivering pizzas. By car. What do you think?” Convince your boss it is not a good idea. Give two reasons. You get fifteen seconds to prepare. You have thirty seconds of speaking time.