Formulier invullen

One of the four Schrijven tasks, and the one candidates lose marks on while believing it went well. Nothing here is hard to write; the marks go on reading the field labels. Dutch forms use words that do not appear in a course book — achternaam against voornaam, geboorteplaats, ingangsdatum, handtekening — and a field misread is a field answered with the wrong kind of thing.

Part of Schrijven: four tasks in 40 minutes, handwritten on paper. The form is a realistic one and is marked on whether the information asked for is present and usable — a date where a date was asked for, a signature where a signature was asked for, nothing left blank. It is not marked on style, and a full sentence in a one-word field is not rewarded for being correct Dutch. Because it is by hand, an unreadable entry is a missing entry.

Voornaam / Achternaam

Given name and family name. Dutch forms put voornaam first; many other countries do the opposite.

Geboortedatum / Geboorteplaats

Date of birth against place of birth. One is digits, the other is a town.

Postcode / Huisnummer

A Dutch postcode is four digits and two letters: 1012 AB. The house number is its own field.

Ingangsdatum / Datum van vandaag

The date something starts, against today's date. Forms often ask for both.

Handtekening

A signature, not your name printed. An empty signature line is an incomplete form.

Toelichting / Reden

The one field that wants a sentence. Everything else on the form wants a value.

• Achternaam: El Amrani Voornaam: Youssef

  ✗Achternaam: Youssef · Voornaam: El Amrani

  Filled the Dutch way round. Reversing these is the single commonest form error and it makes the whole document refer to a different person.

• Reden van uw aanvraag: Ik wil me inschrijven voor de cursus Nederlands op maandagavond.

  A labelled reason field, so a sentence belongs here — and it names what and when, which is what makes the entry usable rather than merely present.

• Telefoonnummer (overdag bereikbaar): 06-12345678

  The bracket is part of the label. A number where you cannot be reached during the day answers the field but not the question in it.

• +Exception 1

  Fields that do not apply to you still need an entry: n.v.t. or a dash. But never invent one — a form is a factual document, and a made-up previous address is worse than a blank because it is wrong rather than missing.

• ✗Swapping voornaam and achternaam. Many countries write the family name first, and the habit survives the instruction.
• ✗Writing sentences into value fields. It costs time you need for the other three tasks and answers a question the form did not ask.
• ✗Leaving the signature or the date empty because they felt like formalities. They are fields, and a blank field is a lost mark.
• ✗Handwriting a postcode or a phone number that cannot be read back. On paper, an ambiguous digit is not a small problem — it is an unusable answer.