Primary 1 English exam paper analysis: 2015
PaperLah has 19 Primary 1 English exam papers from 2015, set by 16 Singapore primary schools, with 1,251 questions worth 1,125 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Vocabulary (25%), Comprehension (22%) and Grammar - pronouns (8.5%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 100% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 40% of marks, and 0% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 66 questions and 59 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 25% of marks in 2015 (all years: 26%); Comprehension took 22% of marks in 2015 (all years: 22%); Grammar - pronouns took 8.5% of marks in 2015 (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.
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| Topic | % of marks | Papers |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 25.1 | in 17 of 19 papers |
| Comprehension | 22.1 | in 19 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 8.5 | in 16 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 7.2 | in 17 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.1 | in 16 of 19 papers |
| Punctuation | 4.4 | in 10 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 4 | in 12 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 3.6 | in 8 of 19 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 2.9 | in 5 of 19 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 2.7 | in 5 of 19 papers |
| Editing | 2.7 | in 5 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 2.5 | in 11 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 2.2 | in 10 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 1.2 | in 6 of 19 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 1.2 | in 3 of 19 papers |
| Phonics | 1 | in 4 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - other | 0.9 | in 7 of 19 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 0.4 | in 1 of 19 papers |
| Healthy habits | 0.2 | in 1 of 19 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.2 | in 2 of 19 papers |
| Road safety | 0.1 | in 1 of 19 papers |
| Composition | 0 | in 2 of 19 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 40%
- Word bank 16%
- Cloze passage 13%
- Short answer 9%
- Other 22%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 39.6 |
| Word bank | 15.7 |
| Cloze passage | 13.3 |
| Short answer | 8.8 |
| Fill in the blank | 7.5 |
| Editing (find the error) | 6 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 4.1 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 2.5 |
| Listening | 2.4 |
| Composition | 0 |
| Other | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 17% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 76.3 |
| 2 | 6.8 |
How likely a topic comes up
The share of papers with at least one question on the topic.
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| Topic | % of papers |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | 100 |
| Vocabulary | 89.5 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 89.5 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 84.2 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 84.2 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 63.2 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 57.9 |
| Punctuation | 52.6 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 52.6 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 42.1 |
| Grammar - other | 36.8 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 31.6 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 26.3 |
| Grammar cloze | 26.3 |
| Editing | 26.3 |
| Phonics | 21.1 |
| Listening comprehension | 15.8 |
| Composition | 10.5 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 10.5 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 5.3 |
| Healthy habits | 5.3 |
| Road safety | 5.3 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 19 papers, 1,251 questions, 1,125 marks, from 16 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Vocabulary, 25% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 100% of papers.
- Exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Mid-Year / SA1 and End-of-Year / SA2.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 1 English exam papers in 2015?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Vocabulary (25%), Comprehension (22%), Grammar - pronouns (8.5%), Grammar - prepositions (7.2%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.1%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 1 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 66 questions and 59 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?
19 papers from 16 schools, from these exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Mid-Year / SA1 and End-of-Year / SA2. 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
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