The Delft Method and KNM – a part of the Civic Integration Exam. KNM is your roadmap in the Netherlands. Read here how KNM works in the Delft method.
Estimated reading time 6 minutes
Author: Margreet Kwakernaak, certified trainer NT2, certified ONA coach, director of Suitcase talen, and author of Dutch for Dummies and 7 other Dutch textbooks
What’s in KNM, the Knowledge of Dutch Society
To begin with, all candidates for the Civic Integration Exam must pass KNM. Expats, highly skilled migrants, refugees, and all those who want to have a permanent residence permit, have the same exam. KNM has two objectives. The first is your integration into Dutch society, the second is to provide you with the tools.
Consequently, the exam has the following parts: Work and Income; Manners, Values, and Norms; Health and Healthcare; History and Geography; Organizations; Politics and Law, and Education.
Most of the information you need is in the Delft method.
Read more in The Delft method is faster
Continue reading the following paragraphs of this blog to learn where to find knowledge of Dutch society using the Delft method.
The Delft method excels in long-term information: History of the Netherlands
The Delft method excels in information about geography and history. Basic geography, description of landscapes, polders, and the Randstad with its major towns in the West: you’ll find all this in the second half of the A2 part of the Delft method, Nederlands Voor Buitenlanders. The Delft Method is circular: all the mentioned themes come back in the B1-part of the method, de Tweede Ronde. Here they are again, with more details and more difficult words.
Whether you are a Dutchman or a newcomer, Willem van Oranje and the 80-year War are unavoidable in Dutch history. As a well-educated Dutch lady I was bored with this old stuff. However, the Delft method revived everything.
How did it happen? In Delft method Conversation Classes, history, and geography are discussed in a much wider setting than just the Dutch point of view. When I asked my international students, it turned out that almost every country has its own Willem van Oranje – a person who liberated the country from the oppressor or reformed the country – or both of them.
The Delft method and KNM: history in an international perspective
Additionally, it’s exciting to ask students which countries have been their oppressors. Or have their forefathers been oppressors themselves? Dutch history pales in comparison to what some countries have experienced. And you know, what you discussed with emotion, you don’t forget. Delft method themes like Happy Children, from Republic to Kingdom, and Other Times, all of them in Nederlands Voor Anderstaligen provoke these interesting discussions. For sure, this goes much deeper than what you need for KNM. The KNM exam has nothing philosophical. On the contrary, it is practice-oriented.
The geography of the Delft method compared to the Geography part of KNM
Let’s move to geography. Technical University Delft developed the Delft method for foreign students who came to Delft to do technical studies. Because of their technical interests, the information about water management is extensive. Polders, the flood of 1953, and our national pride, the Delta Programme, to hold back the water forever – everything is in the Delft method. For KNM it is an overdose, more than you need. There is no need to study extra geography for KNM after the Delft method!
KNM- students, in your interest, make some trips to the places mentioned in the Delft method! Past and present come together in old Dutch towns like Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Haarlem en Delft.
The KNM topics – Work and Income and education in the Delft method
On the other hand, in the Delft method, you will not find much information about the KNM themes Work and Income. Only one Delft method text is explicitly about work, at the end of the B1 part de Tweede Ronde.
However, Education is both in the A2 and the B1 part of the Delft method.
For practical information that is subject to rapid transmission: use the most concise information existing
Finally, use a book for practical, actual information like organizational aspects of Healthcare, Organizations, Politics, and Law. Though Taalcompleet KNM is attractive, the method is meant for class discussions and the elaborate e-learning will cost you more than 40 hours. A waste of time after the Delft method! However, it will help you to pass the exam, if you read the texts of the book carefully and do not use the e-learning.
‘Welkom in Nederland’ is fine for newcomers in the Netherlands, but don’t read the complete book after the Delft method. For Delft method students, far too elaborate. In that case, follow the strategy mentioned in the next paragraph and google for the subjects you failed on the mock exams – healthcare or the Dutch school system.
Delft method and KNM: KNM preparation strategy after the Delft method
Shortly before you reach level A2, open the oefenen examens KNM and do the first mock exam. In the end, click Afsluiten. Click Score and check your answers. Score 1 van 1 means that your answer is correct. Then, checking your answers one by one, analyze which your weak topics are. Order your book and read the chapters on the topics you don’t know well enough.
Do the second mock exam. Too many mistakes? Analyze again, read again, and do some of the mock exams in the book. You can redo the exams KNM, but you’ll remember your answers. Try some more mock exams, you can find them by googling. Beware: KNS is the A1 version of KNM, don’t use it!
Conclusion
- KNM (Knowledge of Dutch Society) is part of the Civic Integration Exam at any Language Level. The Delft method contains a lot of KNM.
- In the Delft method, you learn a lot about the history and geography of the Netherlands – needed for KNM
- The Delft method encourages you to compare your own country with the Netherlands
- The more places you visit in the Netherlands, the less you have to study for KNM
- Before buying a KNM book, take a KNM practice exam on the Civic Integration website. Maybe you don’t even need to buy a book
Suitcase talen exam training Civic Integration Exam
In 2024, Suitcase talen continues its short Exam training for the A2 Civic Integration exam. In 6 evening classes (3 weeks) you’ll learn the tips and tricks you need to pass Speaking and Writing. However, if you don’t have the time to spend 8 hours on your assessments in those 2 weeks, this training is useless. It is based on the feedback on the speaking and writing mock exams you do during the training.
In the future, the Civic Integration Exam will be at level B1
For Civic Integration, the Civic Integration Exam is at level B1. Its actual name is Staatsexamen NT2. NT2 means Dutch as a second language. The exam includes the language parts of Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing, and the preparation will take twice as much time as the actual exam.
If you are not subject to the integration obligation but want to naturalize, the required language level is A2- in 2024. This may change in 2025.
Read more about the Civic Integration Exam in Dutch citizenship, which exam?
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