Primary 2 English exam paper analysis: 2023
PaperLah has 21 Primary 2 English exam papers from 2023, set by 7 Singapore primary schools, with 750 questions worth 378 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (24%), Vocabulary (16%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (9.8%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 95% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 35% of marks, and 0% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 36 questions and 18 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 24% of marks in 2023 (all years: 25%); Vocabulary took 16% of marks in 2023 (all years: 19%); Grammar - verbs and tenses took 9.8% of marks in 2023 (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 | 24.3 | in 17 of 21 papers |
| Vocabulary | 15.9 | in 20 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 9.8 | in 19 of 21 papers |
| Editing | 8.5 | in 7 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 8.1 | in 13 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 5.8 | in 11 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 4.5 | in 11 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 4 | in 14 of 21 papers |
| Punctuation | 3.4 | in 9 of 21 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 3.4 | in 6 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 2.4 | in 9 of 21 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 2.1 | in 4 of 21 papers |
| Phonics | 1.6 | in 4 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.6 | in 6 of 21 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 1.6 | in 2 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.3 | in 3 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 1.2 | in 7 of 21 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.5 | in 2 of 21 papers |
| Time phrases | 0 | in 1 of 21 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 35%
- Cloze passage 12%
- Short answer 11%
- Rewrite / synthesis 10%
- Other 33%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 35.2 |
| Cloze passage | 11.6 |
| Short answer | 10.6 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 10.1 |
| Word bank | 9.5 |
| Editing (find the error) | 9.3 |
| Fill in the blank | 6.3 |
| Listening | 5.3 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 1.9 |
| Other | 0.3 |
| Drawing or labelling | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 52% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 45.5 |
| 2 | 2.5 |
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 |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | 95.2 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 90.5 |
| Comprehension | 81 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 66.7 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 61.9 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 52.4 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 52.4 |
| Punctuation | 42.9 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 42.9 |
| Editing | 33.3 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 33.3 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 28.6 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 28.6 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 19 |
| Phonics | 19 |
| Grammar - other | 14.3 |
| Listening comprehension | 9.5 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 9.5 |
| Time phrases | 4.8 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 21 papers, 750 questions, 378 marks, from 7 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 24% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 95% of papers.
- Exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, Practice paper and Other.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 2 English exam papers in 2023?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (24%), Vocabulary (16%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (9.8%), Editing (8.5%) and Grammar - prepositions (8.1%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 2 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 36 questions and 18 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?
21 papers from 7 schools, from these exam types: Quiz / Review / Test, 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
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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