Primary 2 English exam paper analysis: 2022
PaperLah has 14 Primary 2 English exam papers from 2022, set by 9 Singapore primary schools, with 425 questions worth 447 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (29%), Vocabulary (16%) and Grammar - prepositions (7.3%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 93% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 37% of marks, and 0.5% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 30 questions and 32 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 29% of marks in 2022 (all years: 25%); Vocabulary took 16% of marks in 2022 (all years: 19%); Grammar - prepositions took 7.3% of marks in 2022 (all years: 6.4%).
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 | 28.7 | in 13 of 14 papers |
| Vocabulary | 15.9 | in 12 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 7.3 | in 12 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 6.4 | in 12 of 14 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 6 | in 6 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 4.4 | in 10 of 14 papers |
| Phonics | 4.3 | in 3 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 3.8 | in 4 of 14 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 3.6 | in 4 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.2 | in 9 of 14 papers |
| Punctuation | 2.7 | in 4 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 2.7 | in 7 of 14 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 2.5 | in 3 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.9 | in 5 of 14 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 1.8 | in 3 of 14 papers |
| Editing | 1.6 | in 2 of 14 papers |
| Composition | 1.1 | in 2 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.8 | in 4 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - other | 0.6 | in 3 of 14 papers |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0.4 | in 1 of 14 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.4 | in 2 of 14 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 37%
- Cloze passage 19%
- Short answer 14%
- Rewrite / synthesis 7%
- Other 23%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 36.8 |
| Cloze passage | 18.9 |
| Short answer | 13.7 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 7.4 |
| Editing (find the error) | 6.7 |
| Listening | 6.5 |
| Word bank | 5.5 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 2.2 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.1 |
| Composition | 1.1 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 6% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 82.1 |
| 2 | 11.5 |
| 5+ | 0.5 |
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 | 92.9 |
| Vocabulary | 85.7 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 85.7 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 85.7 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 71.4 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 64.3 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 50 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 42.9 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 35.7 |
| Punctuation | 28.6 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 28.6 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 28.6 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 28.6 |
| Phonics | 21.4 |
| Grammar cloze | 21.4 |
| Listening comprehension | 21.4 |
| Grammar - other | 21.4 |
| Editing | 14.3 |
| Composition | 14.3 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 14.3 |
| Oral and reading aloud | 7.1 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 14 papers, 425 questions, 447 marks, from 9 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 29% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 93% of papers.
- 0.5% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Other and Practice paper.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 2 English exam papers in 2022?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (29%), Vocabulary (16%), Grammar - prepositions (7.3%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (6.4%) and Vocabulary cloze (6%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 2 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 30 questions and 32 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?
14 papers from 9 schools, from these exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Other and Practice paper. 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.
Practise real Primary 2 English papers
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