The KNM exam: what it tests and how to prepare

KNM is one of the exams of the inburgeringsexamen, which DUO runs. You take it on a computer; it is divided into themes, such as wonen (housing) or werk en inkomen (work and income), with questions for each, and it takes 45 minutes. Mijn Inburgering, DUO's site for your own case, shows which exams you have to take.

The questions are written in Dutch at A2 level, and both the questions and the answers are supported by pictures. They are about everyday situations: renting a home, seeing a doctor, a letter from the tax office, your child's school.

DUO's public pages don't give a fixed number of questions or a pass mark. Practice sites commonly use 40 multiple-choice questions with a target of about 28 correct, and say themselves that this is a guide for practice, not an official rule.

The eindtermen — the official list of what the exam tests — start from four practical situations: working, your own living environment, dealing with public bodies and the government, and being a citizen of the Netherlands. They are tied to eight themes:

• Werk en inkomen — work and income
• Omgangsvormen, waarden en normen — manners, values and norms
• Wonen — housing
• Gezondheid en gezondheidszorg — health and healthcare
• Geschiedenis en geografie — history and geography
• Instanties — public bodies and services, such as the municipality, the tax office and the police
• Staatsinrichting en rechtsstaat — how the state and the rule of law work
• Onderwijs en opvoeding — education and bringing up children

Since 1 July 2025 the exam follows new eindtermen, published in the Staatscourant (2024, 15802) — the first revision since 2015. SLO, the Dutch curriculum institute, wrote them for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment; Cito organised the revision and made the new exams.

The biggest shift is in what is tested: the new eindtermen ask what you need to know far more than how you are expected to behave. Some of the old ones described norms that by no means everyone in the Netherlands shares.

New explicit items include:

• what the Holocaust was, that many Dutch Jews were murdered in it, and that antisemitism is forbidden by law;
• that women in the Netherlands have the right to self-determination, and what that means (eindterm 7.2.8, added by the ministry itself);
• digital matters, such as using your citizen service number (BSN) and DigiD safely, and that many healthcare services need DigiD.

The questions are in Dutch. Knowing that you need a rental contract, or that you see your GP first, doesn't help if you don't recognise huurcontract or huisarts in the question. Many questions turn on a handful of words — gemeente, toeslag, huisarts, bezwaar, opzegtermijn — and once you know them, the question becomes readable and the explanation teaches you the rest.

That's also why the theme words matter more than general vocabulary in the last weeks before the exam: housing questions use housing words, healthcare questions healthcare words.

• Learn the words first: the A2 basics, then the words the KNM questions use, theme by theme.
• Practise by theme, and read the explanation of every answer, right or wrong. When a rule surprises you, follow the official source.
• Keep your mistakes and come back to them until you get them right several times in a row.
• Do DUO's two KNM practice exams on inburgeren.nl, and watch the films on netinnederland.nl about topics that also come up in the exam.
• Check that what you practise with is written for the 2025 eindtermen: the official text itself expects lesson material and textbooks to change with them.
• Do a timed mock exam a few days before, so 45 minutes feels familiar.
• Check inburgeren.nl and Mijn Inburgering for your own exams, dates and deadlines — the rules change.

Tulp has nearly 600 original practice questions over the eight themes, each tied to one of the 2025 eindtermen. Every question has an explanation in your language — English, Chinese or Japanese — and in simple Dutch, plus a link to an official source; show the translation when you need it and hide it when you don't.

Tap any Dutch word to look it up and save it; words you haven't learned yet are underlined, and each answered question lists its key words. Every theme has its own word list, and KNM words first teaches those words before others of the same level. A wrong-answer book, favourites and a timed mock exam of 40 questions in 45 minutes complete it.

Tulp's questions are written by TIT. They are not DUO's exam questions, and Tulp is not affiliated with DUO or the Dutch government.

• inburgeren.nl — Kennisexamens: KNM on a computer, by theme, 45 minutes
• inburgeren.nl — Oefenen: DUO's two KNM practice exams
• Staatscourant 2024, 15802 — the KNM eindtermen in force since 1 July 2025
• Rijksoverheid, 30 June 2025 — Inburgeringsexamen vernieuwd: extra aandacht voor zelfbeschikking vrouwen en kennis holocaust
• inburgering.org — KNM exam guide (third party, updated October 2026)