Primary 1 English exam paper analysis: 2017
PaperLah has 11 Primary 1 English exam papers from 2017, set by 11 Singapore primary schools, with 911 questions worth 928 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Vocabulary (27%), Comprehension (22%) and Grammar - pronouns (9.3%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 100% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 44% of marks, and 0% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 83 questions and 84 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 27% of marks in 2017 (all years: 26%); Comprehension took 22% of marks in 2017 (all years: 22%); Grammar - pronouns took 9.3% of marks in 2017 (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 | 26.8 | in 11 of 11 papers |
| Comprehension | 22.1 | in 11 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 9.3 | in 11 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.5 | in 11 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 6.6 | in 10 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 4.4 | in 5 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 4.1 | in 10 of 11 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.8 | in 4 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 2.7 | in 8 of 11 papers |
| Punctuation | 2.4 | in 4 of 11 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 1.8 | in 2 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.6 | in 8 of 11 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 1.5 | in 2 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 1.3 | in 6 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.2 | in 4 of 11 papers |
| Editing | 1.1 | in 1 of 11 papers |
| Phonics | 0.9 | in 2 of 11 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.6 | in 1 of 11 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.2 | in 1 of 11 papers |
| Days of the week | 0.1 | in 1 of 11 papers |
| Composition | 0 | in 1 of 11 papers |
| Descriptive words | 0 | in 1 of 11 papers |
| Descriptive writing | 0 | in 1 of 11 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 44%
- Word bank 21%
- Cloze passage 9%
- Short answer 7%
- Other 19%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 44 |
| Word bank | 20.8 |
| Cloze passage | 9.4 |
| Short answer | 7.3 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 6.1 |
| Fill in the blank | 5.9 |
| Editing (find the error) | 3 |
| Listening | 1.4 |
| Other | 1.2 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 0.9 |
| Composition | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 7% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 84.2 |
| 2 | 9.1 |
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 |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 100 |
| Comprehension | 100 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 100 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 100 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 90.9 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 90.9 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 72.7 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 72.7 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 54.5 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 45.5 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 36.4 |
| Punctuation | 36.4 |
| Grammar - other | 36.4 |
| Grammar cloze | 18.2 |
| Phonics | 18.2 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 18.2 |
| Editing | 9.1 |
| Listening comprehension | 9.1 |
| Composition | 9.1 |
| Descriptive words | 9.1 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 9.1 |
| Descriptive writing | 9.1 |
| Days of the week | 9.1 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 11 papers, 911 questions, 928 marks, from 11 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Vocabulary, 27% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 100% of papers.
- Exam types: Quiz / Review / Test.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 1 English exam papers in 2017?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Vocabulary (27%), Comprehension (22%), Grammar - pronouns (9.3%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.5%) and Grammar - prepositions (6.6%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 1 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 83 questions and 84 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?
11 papers from 11 schools, from these exam types: Quiz / Review / Test. 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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