Primary 1 English exam paper analysis: 2018
PaperLah has 32 Primary 1 English exam papers from 2018, set by 13 Singapore primary schools, with 739 questions worth 728 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Vocabulary (26%), Comprehension (26%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (8.5%); together the top 2 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 88% 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 23 questions and 23 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 26% of marks in 2018 (all years: 26%); Comprehension took 26% of marks in 2018 (all years: 22%); Grammar - verbs and tenses took 8.5% of marks in 2018 (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.
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| Topic | % of marks | Papers |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 26.1 | in 28 of 32 papers |
| Comprehension | 25.7 | in 25 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 8.5 | in 21 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 6.3 | in 21 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 6.3 | in 9 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 5.4 | in 19 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 4.3 | in 16 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.6 | in 19 of 32 papers |
| Punctuation | 2.5 | in 7 of 32 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 2.5 | in 6 of 32 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 2.1 | in 3 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 2.1 | in 10 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 1.2 | in 4 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.1 | in 8 of 32 papers |
| Editing | 0.9 | in 3 of 32 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 0.5 | in 1 of 32 papers |
| Phonics | 0.3 | in 1 of 32 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.2 | in 2 of 32 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.2 | in 2 of 32 papers |
| Calendar months | 0.1 | in 1 of 32 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 44%
- Word bank 14%
- Rewrite / synthesis 9%
- Short answer 9%
- Other 24%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 43.6 |
| Word bank | 14.3 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 9.1 |
| Short answer | 8.8 |
| Fill in the blank | 8.5 |
| Cloze passage | 8.2 |
| Editing (find the error) | 3.4 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 3.3 |
| Listening | 0.5 |
| Other | 0.3 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 11% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 78.8 |
| 2 | 10.4 |
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 | 87.5 |
| Comprehension | 78.1 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 65.6 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 65.6 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 59.4 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 59.4 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 50 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 31.3 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 28.1 |
| Grammar - other | 25 |
| Punctuation | 21.9 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 18.8 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 12.5 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 9.4 |
| Editing | 9.4 |
| Listening comprehension | 6.3 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 6.3 |
| Phonics | 3.1 |
| Grammar cloze | 3.1 |
| Calendar months | 3.1 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 32 papers, 739 questions, 728 marks, from 13 schools.
- 2 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Vocabulary, 26% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 88% of papers.
- Exam types: Quiz / Review / Test.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 1 English exam papers in 2018?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Vocabulary (26%), Comprehension (26%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (8.5%), Grammar - pronouns (6.3%) 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 23 questions and 23 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?
32 papers from 13 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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