Primary 4 English exam paper analysis and topic trends
PaperLah has 442 Primary 4 English exam papers from 26 Singapore primary schools, set between 2011 and 2025, with 19,232 questions in total. The topics carrying the most marks are Comprehension (33%), Vocabulary (15%) and Grammar - pronouns (7.6%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 96% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 42% of marks, and 0.3% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 44 questions and 48 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.
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 | 33.1 | in 426 of 442 papers |
| Vocabulary | 14.5 | in 426 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 7.6 | in 398 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 7.2 | in 384 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 6.8 | in 412 of 442 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 6.2 | in 323 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.7 | in 362 of 442 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 3.1 | in 63 of 442 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.1 | in 109 of 442 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 2.8 | in 105 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.6 | in 264 of 442 papers |
| Composition | 1.8 | in 68 of 442 papers |
| Editing | 1.7 | in 103 of 442 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.6 | in 65 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.4 | in 227 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - other | 0.7 | in 59 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.4 | in 68 of 442 papers |
| Phonics | 0.3 | in 13 of 442 papers |
| Punctuation | 0.3 | in 35 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.3 | in 34 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.2 | in 48 of 442 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.2 | in 8 of 442 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.2 | in 37 of 442 papers |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0 | in 3 of 442 papers |
| Travel information | 0 | in 1 of 442 papers |
| Road safety | 0 | in 2 of 442 papers |
| Sports and health | 0 | in 2 of 442 papers |
| Sports safety | 0 | in 2 of 442 papers |
| Picture-Matching | 0 | in 1 of 442 papers |
| Puppet shows | 0 | in 1 of 442 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 42%
- Short answer 14%
- Cloze passage 14%
- Word bank 7%
- Other 23%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 41.9 |
| Short answer | 14 |
| Cloze passage | 13.8 |
| Word bank | 7.4 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 6.7 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 4.8 |
| Editing (find the error) | 4 |
| Listening | 3.5 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.9 |
| Composition | 1.8 |
| Other | 0.3 |
| Number answer | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 2% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 88.6 |
| 2 | 9 |
| 3 | 0.2 |
| 4 | 0 |
| 5+ | 0.2 |
How topics change over the years
The most-asked topics, as a share of each year's questions. Darker means asked more that year. Use it to spot topics schools are asking more often now.
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| Topic | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comprehension | 30.4 | 32.5 | 30.7 | 30.1 | 29.6 | 30.6 | 31.4 | 30 |
| Vocabulary | 14.2 | 15.8 | 17 | 17.1 | 15.8 | 16.1 | 18.1 | 15.6 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 7.1 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 9.6 | 9.2 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 8.8 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 7.9 | 9 | 8.1 | 8.3 | 8.7 | 9 | 7.5 | 9 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.3 | 7.1 | 8.8 | 7.8 | 7.2 | 9.2 | 8.9 | 8 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 5.5 | 5.1 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 4.9 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 5.3 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 5 | 4.6 | 4.9 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 3 | 2.8 | 3.9 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 2 | 2.7 | 2.3 |
| Listening comprehension | 6.9 | 2.7 | 0 | 1.2 | 4.7 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 3.6 |
| Grammar cloze | 2.6 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 4.2 | 2.9 |
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 | 96.4 |
| Vocabulary | 96.4 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 93.2 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 90 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 86.9 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 81.9 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 73.1 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 59.7 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 51.4 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 24.7 |
| Grammar cloze | 23.8 |
| Editing | 23.3 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 15.4 |
| Composition | 15.4 |
| Comprehension cloze | 14.7 |
| Listening comprehension | 14.3 |
| Grammar - other | 13.3 |
| Grammar - question tags | 10.9 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 8.4 |
| Punctuation | 7.9 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 7.7 |
| Phonics | 2.9 |
| Visual text comprehension | 1.8 |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0.7 |
| Road safety | 0.5 |
| Sports and health | 0.5 |
| Sports safety | 0.5 |
| Travel information | 0.2 |
| Picture-Matching | 0.2 |
| Puppet shows | 0.2 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 442 papers, 19,232 questions, 21,017 marks, from 26 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 33% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 96% of papers.
- 0.3% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Mid-Year / SA1, Weighted Assessment / CA, Quiz / Review / Test and Practice paper.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 4 English exam papers?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics are Comprehension (33%), Vocabulary (15%), Grammar - pronouns (7.6%), Grammar - subject-verb agreement (7.2%) and Grammar - verbs and tenses (6.8%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 4 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 44 questions and 48 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?
442 papers from 26 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Mid-Year / SA1, Weighted Assessment / CA, Quiz / Review / Test 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 · Maha Bodhi · Maris Stella High · Methodist Girls' · Nan Chiau · Nan Hua · Nanyang · Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' · Pei Chun · Pei Hwa · Raffles Girls' · Red Swastika · Rosyth · Rulang · Singapore Chinese Girls' · St Hilda's · St Joseph's · Tao Nan · Temasek
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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