Primary 3 English exam paper analysis: 2019
PaperLah has 39 Primary 3 English exam papers from 2019, set by 20 Singapore primary schools, with 1,541 questions worth 1,600 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (31%), Vocabulary (16%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.8%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 97% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 45% of marks, and 0.1% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 40 questions and 41 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 2019 (all years: 30%); Vocabulary took 16% of marks in 2019 (all years: 17%); Grammar - verbs and tenses took 7.8% of marks in 2019 (all years: 7.1%).
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 | 31.3 | in 32 of 39 papers |
| Vocabulary | 16.1 | in 38 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.8 | in 35 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 6 | in 33 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 5.7 | in 33 of 39 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 5.4 | in 22 of 39 papers |
| Editing | 4.3 | in 21 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 4.1 | in 22 of 39 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.6 | in 11 of 39 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 3.3 | in 10 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 3.1 | in 26 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 2.9 | in 30 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.9 | in 13 of 39 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1 | in 6 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.7 | in 12 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.7 | in 11 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.6 | in 10 of 39 papers |
| Punctuation | 0.5 | in 4 of 39 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.5 | in 2 of 39 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.3 | in 1 of 39 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.3 | in 1 of 39 papers |
| Composition | 0 | in 1 of 39 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 45%
- Cloze passage 15%
- Short answer 12%
- Word bank 9%
- Other 20%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 44.6 |
| Cloze passage | 15.2 |
| Short answer | 12.1 |
| Word bank | 8.6 |
| Editing (find the error) | 7 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 5.9 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 4 |
| Fill in the blank | 2.1 |
| Listening | 0.3 |
| Other | 0.1 |
| Number answer | 0.1 |
| Composition | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 4% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 88.4 |
| 2 | 7.7 |
| 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 | 97.4 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 89.7 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 84.6 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 84.6 |
| Comprehension | 82.1 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 76.9 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 66.7 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 56.4 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 56.4 |
| Editing | 53.8 |
| Grammar - other | 33.3 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 30.8 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 28.2 |
| Grammar - question tags | 28.2 |
| Grammar cloze | 25.6 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 25.6 |
| Comprehension cloze | 15.4 |
| Punctuation | 10.3 |
| Visual text comprehension | 5.1 |
| Listening comprehension | 2.6 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 2.6 |
| Composition | 2.6 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 39 papers, 1,541 questions, 1,600 marks, from 20 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 31% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 97% of papers.
- 0.1% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Mid-Year / SA1 and Weighted Assessment / CA.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 3 English exam papers in 2019?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (31%), Vocabulary (16%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.8%), Grammar - pronouns (6%) and Grammar - prepositions (5.7%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 3 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 40 questions and 41 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?
39 papers from 20 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Mid-Year / SA1 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 · 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.
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