Primary 2 English exam paper analysis: 2019
PaperLah has 27 Primary 2 English exam papers from 2019, set by 13 Singapore primary schools, with 1,717 questions worth 1,214 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (23%), Vocabulary (20%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (8.2%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 96% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 36% of marks, and 0.1% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 64 questions and 45 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: Comprehension took 23% of marks in 2019 (all years: 25%); Vocabulary took 20% of marks in 2019 (all years: 19%); Grammar - verbs and tenses took 8.2% of marks in 2019 (all years: 7.5%).
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Comprehension | 23.4 | in 23 of 27 papers |
| Vocabulary | 19.9 | in 26 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 8.2 | in 25 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 7 | in 18 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 6.3 | in 18 of 27 papers |
| Editing | 5 | in 15 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 4.9 | in 18 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 4.6 | in 21 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 3.5 | in 18 of 27 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 2.9 | in 9 of 27 papers |
| Punctuation | 2.6 | in 16 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 2.6 | in 17 of 27 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 2.5 | in 6 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 2 | in 14 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.2 | in 11 of 27 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.2 | in 4 of 27 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 1.1 | in 6 of 27 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.5 | in 2 of 27 papers |
| Phonics | 0.2 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.2 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Magnets | 0.1 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.1 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Compound words | 0 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Composition | 0 | in 1 of 27 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 36%
- Word bank 14%
- Cloze passage 12%
- Short answer 12%
- Other 25%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 36.4 |
| Word bank | 13.8 |
| Cloze passage | 12.4 |
| Short answer | 12 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 8.4 |
| Editing (find the error) | 7.3 |
| Fill in the blank | 5.6 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 2.9 |
| Listening | 0.8 |
| Other | 0.2 |
| Composition | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 34% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 59.9 |
| 2 | 6.1 |
| 3 | 0.1 |
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 | 96.3 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 92.6 |
| Comprehension | 85.2 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 77.8 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 66.7 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 66.7 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 66.7 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 66.7 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 63 |
| Punctuation | 59.3 |
| Editing | 55.6 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 51.9 |
| Grammar - other | 40.7 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 33.3 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 22.2 |
| Grammar cloze | 22.2 |
| Comprehension cloze | 14.8 |
| Visual text comprehension | 7.4 |
| Compound words | 3.7 |
| Phonics | 3.7 |
| Listening comprehension | 3.7 |
| Composition | 3.7 |
| Magnets | 3.7 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 3.7 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 27 papers, 1,717 questions, 1,214 marks, from 13 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 23% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 96% of papers.
- 0.1% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Practice paper, Other, End-of-Year / SA2 and Weighted Assessment / CA.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 2 English exam papers in 2019?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (23%), Vocabulary (20%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (8.2%), Grammar - pronouns (7%) and Grammar - prepositions (6.3%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 2 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 64 questions and 45 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?
27 papers from 13 schools, from these exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Practice paper, Other, End-of-Year / SA2 and Weighted Assessment / CA. 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
Schools with Primary 2 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.
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