Primary 2 English exam paper analysis and topic trends
PaperLah has 272 Primary 2 English exam papers from 25 Singapore primary schools, set between 2011 and 2025, with 10,814 questions in total. The topics carrying the most marks are Comprehension (25%), Vocabulary (19%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.5%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 97% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 37% of marks, and 0.2% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 40 questions and 37 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Comprehension | 25 | in 253 of 272 papers |
| Vocabulary | 18.8 | in 263 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.5 | in 245 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 6.4 | in 210 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 5.9 | in 208 of 272 papers |
| Editing | 4.3 | in 104 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 4.1 | in 113 of 272 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.5 | in 75 of 272 papers |
| Punctuation | 3.4 | in 127 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.4 | in 192 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 2.5 | in 154 of 272 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 2.5 | in 58 of 272 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 2.4 | in 63 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 2.1 | in 122 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.8 | in 90 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 1.6 | in 106 of 272 papers |
| Phonics | 1.4 | in 28 of 272 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 1.2 | in 32 of 272 papers |
| Composition | 1 | in 10 of 272 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 0.3 | in 8 of 272 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.3 | in 28 of 272 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.1 | in 4 of 272 papers |
| Life cycles | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
| Butterfly life cycle | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
| Picture sentence | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
| Dragonflies | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
| Compound words | 0 | in 2 of 272 papers |
| Time phrases | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
| Life cycle of a dragonfly | 0 | in 1 of 272 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 37%
- Cloze passage 14%
- Short answer 12%
- Word bank 11%
- Other 26%
Show as table
| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 36.6 |
| Cloze passage | 14.4 |
| Short answer | 12.3 |
| Word bank | 10.7 |
| Editing (find the error) | 7.3 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 6.9 |
| Fill in the blank | 4.8 |
| Listening | 3.1 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 2.7 |
| Composition | 1 |
| Other | 0.2 |
| Number answer | 0.1 |
| Drawing or labelling | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 16% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
Show as table
| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 75 |
| 2 | 8.8 |
| 3 | 0 |
| 5+ | 0.1 |
How topics change over the years
The most-asked topics, as a share of each year's questions. Darker means asked more that year. Use it to spot topics schools are asking more often now.
Show as table
| Topic | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comprehension | 18.7 | 25.1 | 16.7 | 14.6 | 21.4 | 21.7 | 20.8 | 27.9 |
| Vocabulary | 21.2 | 21 | 17.5 | 19.5 | 17.9 | 17.2 | 32.8 | 21.2 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.6 | 8.1 | 10.8 | 7 | 7.1 | 12 | 10.6 | 6.1 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 6.6 | 7.1 | 4.8 | 7 | 7.8 | 6.1 | 2.4 | 6.1 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 6.8 | 6.7 | 5.4 | 4.3 | 4.9 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 8.5 |
| Editing | 5.2 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 29.2 | 4 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 5.2 | 4.7 | 5.2 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 3.3 | 9.6 | 3.6 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 3.8 | 2.4 | 4.8 | 4.3 | 3.1 | 8.1 | 5.8 | 7.9 |
| Punctuation | 4 | 3.4 | 6.1 | 0 | 5.4 | 4.5 | 2.7 | 4.8 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.4 | 3.7 | 5.5 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 4.4 | 1.7 | 6.1 |
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 | 96.7 |
| Comprehension | 93 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 90.1 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 77.2 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 76.5 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 70.6 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 56.6 |
| Punctuation | 46.7 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 44.9 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 41.5 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 39 |
| Editing | 38.2 |
| Grammar - other | 33.1 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 27.6 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 23.2 |
| Grammar cloze | 21.3 |
| Listening comprehension | 11.8 |
| Phonics | 10.3 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 10.3 |
| Composition | 3.7 |
| Comprehension cloze | 2.9 |
| Visual text comprehension | 1.5 |
| Compound words | 0.7 |
| Life cycles | 0.4 |
| Butterfly life cycle | 0.4 |
| Time phrases | 0.4 |
| Picture sentence | 0.4 |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0.4 |
| Life cycle of a dragonfly | 0.4 |
| Dragonflies | 0.4 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 272 papers, 10,814 questions, 10,050 marks, from 25 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 25% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 97% of papers.
- 0.2% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Quiz / Review / Test, Mid-Year / SA1, Weighted Assessment / CA, Practice paper and Other.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 2 English exam papers?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics are Comprehension (25%), Vocabulary (19%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.5%), Grammar - prepositions (6.4%) and Grammar - pronouns (5.9%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 2 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 40 questions and 37 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?
272 papers from 25 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Quiz / Review / Test, Mid-Year / SA1, Weighted Assessment / CA, Practice paper 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 (Junior) · ACS (Primary) · Ai Tong · Anglo-Chinese School · CHIJ · CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' · Catholic High · Henry Park · Holy Innocents · Maha Bodhi · Maris Stella High · Methodist Girls' · Nan Hua · Nanyang · Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' · Pei Chun · Pei Hwa · Raffles Girls' · Red Swastika · Rosyth · Rulang · Singapore Chinese Girls' · St Andrew's · Tao Nan · Temasek
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 2 English papers
One question at a time, marked instantly, with a dashboard that shows which topics need work. Free during the beta.