Primary 3 English exam paper analysis: 2016
PaperLah has 24 Primary 3 English exam papers from 2016, set by 12 Singapore primary schools, with 1,116 questions worth 1,255 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (31%), Vocabulary (15%) and Synthesis and transformation (6.7%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 100% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 42% of marks, and 0.4% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 47 questions and 52 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 31% of marks in 2016 (all years: 30%); Vocabulary took 15% of marks in 2016 (all years: 17%); Synthesis and transformation took 6.7% of marks in 2016 (all years: 5.1%).
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 | 31.1 | in 24 of 24 papers |
| Vocabulary | 15.3 | in 24 of 24 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 6.7 | in 19 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 5.9 | in 24 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 5.7 | in 20 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 5.6 | in 21 of 24 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 3.8 | in 11 of 24 papers |
| Editing | 3.8 | in 13 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 3.6 | in 19 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.3 | in 22 of 24 papers |
| Composition | 3.2 | in 3 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 2.4 | in 17 of 24 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 2.2 | in 2 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.7 | in 9 of 24 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.1 | in 3 of 24 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 1 | in 2 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.7 | in 9 of 24 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.6 | in 2 of 24 papers |
| Whales | 0.6 | in 1 of 24 papers |
| Punctuation | 0.6 | in 4 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.5 | in 7 of 24 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.4 | in 5 of 24 papers |
| Volcanoes | 0.3 | in 1 of 24 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 42%
- Cloze passage 14%
- Short answer 10%
- Word bank 7%
- Other 27%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 41.5 |
| Cloze passage | 14 |
| Short answer | 10.2 |
| Word bank | 7.3 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 7 |
| Editing (find the error) | 5.9 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 4.6 |
| Fill in the blank | 3.4 |
| Composition | 3.2 |
| Listening | 2.2 |
| Other | 0.6 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 1% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 89 |
| 2 | 9.7 |
| 3 | 0.2 |
| 5+ | 0.2 |
How likely a topic comes up
The share of papers with at least one question on the topic.
Show as table
| Topic | % of papers |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | 100 |
| Vocabulary | 100 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 100 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 91.7 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 87.5 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 83.3 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 79.2 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 79.2 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 70.8 |
| Editing | 54.2 |
| Grammar cloze | 45.8 |
| Grammar - other | 37.5 |
| Grammar - question tags | 37.5 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 29.2 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 20.8 |
| Punctuation | 16.7 |
| Comprehension cloze | 12.5 |
| Composition | 12.5 |
| Listening comprehension | 8.3 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 8.3 |
| Visual text comprehension | 8.3 |
| Whales | 4.2 |
| Volcanoes | 4.2 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 24 papers, 1,116 questions, 1,255 marks, from 12 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 31% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 100% of papers.
- 0.4% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: Mid-Year / SA1 and End-of-Year / SA2.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 3 English exam papers in 2016?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (31%), Vocabulary (15%), Synthesis and transformation (6.7%), Grammar - prepositions (5.9%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (5.7%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 3 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 47 questions and 52 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?
24 papers from 12 schools, from these exam types: Mid-Year / SA1 and End-of-Year / SA2. 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 · Maha Bodhi · Maris Stella High · Methodist Girls' · Nan Hua · Nanyang · Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' · Pei Chun · Pei Hwa · Raffles Girls' · Red Swastika · River Valley · Rosyth · Rulang · Singapore Chinese Girls' · St Hilda's · St Joseph's · Tao Nan · Temasek · Yang Zheng
Schools with Primary 3 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 3 English papers
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