Voorbereidend Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs

Voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs (vwo) or pre-university secondary education is the highest variant in the secondary educational system of the Netherlands. After leaving elementary school students are enrolled in different types of secondary schools, according to their academic ability. The vwo course is a six-year course and successful completion allows the candidate admission to Dutch university. The vwo exam is therefore a matriculation exam.

The vwo includes the so-called Gymnasium variant, which differs from the regular vwo variant (also called Atheneum) in that it has Latin and/or Classic Greek as an additional, compulsory part of the curriculum (some schools offer additional courses as well). A limited number of schools offer only the Gymnasium variant.

Around the end of the nineties, a special form of vwo became available, called tto (Tweetalig onderwijs, Bilingual education), in which the students have approximately 50% of their lessons taught in English in the first 3 years, and roughly 30% of the lessons in the last three years. This form of vwo is also more internationally focused, and more time is spent on English lessons, which are also on a higher level than the normal vwo level. A special, international exam is also taken, for example the International Baccalaureate Language A, English. together with the regular exams at the end of the 6th year of vwo. Recently, tto has also become available at havo. At some schools, tto is replaced by a specialised English course, often called 'Cambridge English'. In this program, students follow an additional extra two hours of English a week (depending on the school) and they follow the rest of their subjects in Dutch. They take two or more exams of the University of Cambridge ESOL examination, often the FCE (First Certificate in English) and the CAE (Certificate in Advanced English). Some choose to follow up their FCE and CAE with the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English).

The newest form of vwo is called technasium, this form specialises in working independent and learning the process of researching and making things. The special technasium subject is called O&O, Onderzoeken en ontwerpen which literally stands for Research and Designing.