The allowed time for the written exam is 45 minutes and has to be written by hand. You are allowed a dictionary and that's where it ends. You are expected to summarize a given medical article to a maximum of 80 words. Exceeding or falling short on the word count will incur penalties so try and get it as close as possible to the desired number of words.

Preparing for the written exam: The best way to prepare for this summary is to find articles about common conditions such as stress, anxiety, depression, back pain, cancer, overweight and other common ailments. Usually the articles are fairly current and rather prevalent in the media at the time. Here are some magazines and articles which offer good preparation content.

Another good source is the articles and texts used in previous Dutch exams for pre-university education, some of which can be found online.

Next you practice at home with a word counter to get the formatting right. A desktop computer will make this step easier but only to get comfortable with the concept. After getting the word count in check it's time to focus on completing the summary within the allowed 45 minutes. We strongly advise our students to do this by hand, as you would in the test, because it does take longer to write the words out compared to typing. Time yourself during practice and write the duration of the summary at the end of the page.

Although writing out 80 words by hand does not take as long, your progress can often be impeded as you are reading an unknown article in a language that is not your native tongue. It is also important to have enough time left to check your summary to correct any potential errors before submitting it.

Insufficient preparation is a common mistake that many entrants have made and ended up running out of time before the test was completed.

At Learn Dutch Online, we assist our students with this by screening their preparation summaries and helping them correct the grammatical and other language errors before moving onto the next one. With each one it goes a bit easier and quicker as the student becomes more confident in their abilities to understand and express themselves in Dutch. It becomes evident in the fewer mistakes made and the shorter time taken to complete each summary.

Once your summary has been completed, you are then required to present it to an audience, consisting of Dutch language teachers. You are given 30 minutes to prepare for a 5-minute presentation.

Fortunately the panel does not expect you to form long and complex sentences and they are satisfied with short and accurate sentences or descriptive words. Do not try to impress and exceed your abilities because running out of talent can do more harm than good.

Your digital aid for the presentation will more than likely be Apache OpenOffice Impress and not the traditional Microsoft PowerPoint, so it’s best to ensure that you are familiar with it. The best rule of thumb is to practice with the tool you will be expected to use during the test.

Tips for presenting:

• You have 5 minutes to do so and it's important to get as close to the mark as you can. Don't exceed the limit but rather finish up just before the time runs out.
• An introduction is the best place to start. Tell them who you are and what you will be talking about (first slide).
• Don't be tempted to use highly technical language or English — keep it simple and human. They are testing your ability to comprehend and communicate the content, not your technical expertise. Treat it as you would when talking to a patient.
• Don’t rush. Focus on articulation and pronunciation instead of quantity. Stick to your current language level. Stay calm and confident. Look at the audience and only refer to the screen when needed. Avoid reading from the screen or avoiding eye contact — that increases stress.
• Use slide changes as cues to include everything you’ve prepared.
• Conclude your presentation by thanking your audience and asking if they have any questions.
• Relax and be confident — your audience wants you to succeed and they’re human too.
• After your talk, the audience will ask a few related questions. You’ll have 5 minutes for this. Keep your answers short and on-topic. Don’t elaborate too much — you risk making language mistakes. Short and correct is better than long and flawed.

Once again your trainer becomes invaluable to prepare for your 10 minutes of scrutiny. They guide you with your content, pronunciations and grammar, as well as improving your confidence when presenting your summary.

At Learn Dutch Online we love guiding you through this process and help you with the presentation and summary. Contact us here for more information.