Primary 1 English exam paper analysis: 2014
PaperLah has 31 Primary 1 English exam papers from 2014, set by 11 Singapore primary schools, with 898 questions worth 908 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Vocabulary (24%), Comprehension (22%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (10%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 100% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 40% of marks, and 0.2% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 29 questions and 29 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 24% of marks in 2014 (all years: 26%); Comprehension took 22% of marks in 2014 (all years: 22%); Grammar - verbs and tenses took 10% of marks in 2014 (all years: 8.2%).
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 | 24.2 | in 31 of 31 papers |
| Comprehension | 21.6 | in 23 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 10 | in 23 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 8.6 | in 24 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 4.5 | in 16 of 31 papers |
| Punctuation | 4.5 | in 10 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - other | 3.6 | in 15 of 31 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.6 | in 7 of 31 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 3.3 | in 5 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.2 | in 15 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 3.1 | in 16 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 2.1 | in 8 of 31 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 1.8 | in 5 of 31 papers |
| Editing | 1.2 | in 4 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 1.2 | in 4 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.1 | in 9 of 31 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 1.1 | in 2 of 31 papers |
| Phonics | 0.8 | in 4 of 31 papers |
| Picture sentence writing | 0.4 | in 1 of 31 papers |
| Days of the week | 0 | in 1 of 31 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 40%
- Word bank 19%
- Cloze passage 14%
- Editing (find the error) 7%
- Other 20%
Show as table
| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 40.1 |
| Word bank | 18.8 |
| Cloze passage | 13.8 |
| Editing (find the error) | 7.2 |
| Fill in the blank | 6.7 |
| Short answer | 6.5 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 3.9 |
| Listening | 1.4 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 0.9 |
| Other | 0.8 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 6% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
Show as table
| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 88.5 |
| 2 | 5.5 |
| 5+ | 0.2 |
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 | 100 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 77.4 |
| Comprehension | 74.2 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 74.2 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 51.6 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 51.6 |
| Grammar - other | 48.4 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 48.4 |
| Punctuation | 32.3 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 29 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 25.8 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 22.6 |
| Grammar cloze | 16.1 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 16.1 |
| Editing | 12.9 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 12.9 |
| Phonics | 12.9 |
| Listening comprehension | 6.5 |
| Picture sentence writing | 3.2 |
| Days of the week | 3.2 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 31 papers, 898 questions, 908 marks, from 11 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Vocabulary, 24% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 100% of papers.
- 0.2% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: Mid-Year / SA1, End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA and Other.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 1 English exam papers in 2014?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Vocabulary (24%), Comprehension (22%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (10%), Grammar - pronouns (8.6%) and Grammar - prepositions (4.5%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 1 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 29 questions and 29 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?
31 papers from 11 schools, from these exam types: Mid-Year / SA1, End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA and Other. 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.
Practise real Primary 1 English papers
One question at a time, marked instantly, with a dashboard that shows which topics need work. Free during the beta.