Primary 1 English exam paper analysis: 2011
PaperLah has 25 Primary 1 English exam papers from 2011, set by 12 Singapore primary schools, with 743 questions worth 680 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Vocabulary (29%), Comprehension (20%) and Grammar - pronouns (6.6%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 80% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 40% of marks, and 0.3% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 30 questions and 27 marks.
These figures describe the school papers in PaperLah's collection, not official MOE or SEAB weightings. They help with planning revision; they can't predict a particular exam.
Compared with all years: Vocabulary took 29% of marks in 2011 (all years: 26%); Comprehension took 20% of marks in 2011 (all years: 22%); Grammar - pronouns took 6.6% of marks in 2011 (all years: 7.7%).
Where the marks are
Topics ranked by their share of all marks. The blue ones above the line together make up half.
Show as table
| Topic | % of marks | Papers |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 29 | in 20 of 25 papers |
| Comprehension | 20 | in 18 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 6.6 | in 18 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 6.5 | in 16 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 6.3 | in 8 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 4.4 | in 11 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 3.7 | in 14 of 25 papers |
| Punctuation | 3.7 | in 10 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 3.4 | in 12 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - other | 3.4 | in 10 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 2.9 | in 11 of 25 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 2.1 | in 3 of 25 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.6 | in 3 of 25 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 1.5 | in 2 of 25 papers |
| Hanyu pinyin | 1.5 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| Editing | 1.2 | in 3 of 25 papers |
| Phonics | 0.9 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| Following instructions | 0.4 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.3 | in 3 of 25 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 0.3 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.3 | in 2 of 25 papers |
| Days of the week | 0.1 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| 听力理解 | 0 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| 听力选图 | 0 | in 1 of 25 papers |
| Composition | 0 | in 1 of 25 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 40%
- Word bank 18%
- Cloze passage 11%
- Short answer 9%
- Other 22%
Show as table
| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 39.6 |
| Word bank | 18.4 |
| Cloze passage | 11 |
| Short answer | 9.1 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 7.5 |
| Fill in the blank | 7.2 |
| Editing (find the error) | 4.1 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 1.8 |
| Listening | 1.3 |
| Other | 0 |
| Composition | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 20% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 69.2 |
| 2 | 10.8 |
| 3 | 0.3 |
How likely a topic comes up
The share of papers with at least one question on the topic.
Show as table
| Topic | % of papers |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 80 |
| Comprehension | 72 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 72 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 64 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 56 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 48 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 44 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 44 |
| Punctuation | 40 |
| Grammar - other | 40 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 32 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 12 |
| Editing | 12 |
| Comprehension cloze | 12 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 12 |
| Grammar cloze | 8 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 8 |
| Phonics | 4 |
| 听力理解 | 4 |
| Hanyu pinyin | 4 |
| 听力选图 | 4 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 4 |
| Composition | 4 |
| Following instructions | 4 |
| Days of the week | 4 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 25 papers, 743 questions, 680 marks, from 12 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Vocabulary, 29% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 80% of papers.
- 0.3% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA and Mid-Year / SA1.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 1 English exam papers in 2011?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Vocabulary (29%), Comprehension (20%), Grammar - pronouns (6.6%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (6.5%) and Grammar - word order and sentences (6.3%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 1 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 30 questions and 27 marks. Papers vary by school and by exam (weighted assessments are shorter than mid-year and end-of-year exams).
Which exams and schools are included?
25 papers from 12 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA and Mid-Year / SA1. The schools are listed further down this page.
Can I download these papers?
No. PaperLah doesn't share the papers as downloads. Children practise them online one question at a time, with instant marking, and parents see which topics need work.
Schools included
ACS (Primary) · Ai Tong · Anglo-Chinese School · CHIJ · CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' · Catholic High · Henry Park · Holy Innocents · Kong Hwa · Maha Bodhi · Maris Stella High · Methodist Girls' · Nan Hua · Nanyang · Pei Chun · Pei Hwa · Raffles Girls' · Red Swastika · River Valley · Rosyth · Rulang · Singapore Chinese Girls' · St Andrew's · St Joseph's · Tanjong Katong · Tao Nan · Temasek
Schools with Primary 1 English papers in the collection (all years). Papers are past school assessments; PaperLah is not affiliated with MOE, SEAB or the schools.
How this analysis is made
Every question in each paper is tagged with its topic, format and marks as printed. The figures above are counts over those questions: a topic's share of marks, the share of papers that include it, and so on. Topic names come from the papers and their answer keys, so similar topics can appear under slightly different names. Only aggregate figures are shown here; the questions themselves are practised inside PaperLah.
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