Primary 4 English exam paper analysis: 2014
PaperLah has 27 Primary 4 English exam papers from 2014, set by 12 Singapore primary schools, with 1,180 questions worth 1,315 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (36%), Vocabulary (14%) and Grammar - subject-verb agreement (8.1%); 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 0.6% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 44 questions and 49 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 36% of marks in 2014 (all years: 33%); Vocabulary took 14% of marks in 2014 (all years: 15%); Grammar - subject-verb agreement took 8.1% of marks in 2014 (all years: 7.2%).
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 | 35.8 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Vocabulary | 13.8 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 8.1 | in 25 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 7.2 | in 26 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 6.9 | in 25 of 27 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 6.8 | in 22 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 3.7 | in 22 of 27 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.3 | in 8 of 27 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 2.6 | in 3 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.4 | in 12 of 27 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 2 | in 5 of 27 papers |
| Composition | 1.5 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Editing | 1.1 | in 4 of 27 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 0.7 | in 2 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 0.7 | in 4 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - other | 0.6 | in 3 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.6 | in 7 of 27 papers |
| Phonics | 0.5 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.4 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.4 | in 3 of 27 papers |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0.4 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Road safety | 0.2 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.2 | in 2 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.1 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Punctuation | 0.1 | in 1 of 27 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 42%
- Cloze passage 14%
- Short answer 13%
- Open-ended (show working) 7%
- Other 24%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 41.6 |
| Cloze passage | 13.7 |
| Short answer | 13.5 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 7.1 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 7.1 |
| Word bank | 6.3 |
| Editing (find the error) | 3.8 |
| Listening | 3.4 |
| Composition | 1.5 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.4 |
| Other | 0.4 |
| Number answer | 0.1 |
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 | 88.5 |
| 2 | 9.9 |
| 3 | 0.3 |
| 4 | 0.1 |
| 5+ | 0.2 |
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 | 100 |
| Vocabulary | 100 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 96.3 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 92.6 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 92.6 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 81.5 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 81.5 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 44.4 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 29.6 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 25.9 |
| Grammar cloze | 18.5 |
| Editing | 14.8 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 14.8 |
| Listening comprehension | 11.1 |
| Grammar - other | 11.1 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 11.1 |
| Comprehension cloze | 7.4 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 7.4 |
| Visual text comprehension | 3.7 |
| Road safety | 3.7 |
| Oral and reading aloud | 3.7 |
| Composition | 3.7 |
| Phonics | 3.7 |
| Grammar - question tags | 3.7 |
| Punctuation | 3.7 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 27 papers, 1,180 questions, 1,315 marks, from 12 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 36% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 100% of papers.
- 0.6% 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 4 English exam papers in 2014?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (36%), Vocabulary (14%), Grammar - subject-verb agreement (8.1%), Grammar - verbs and tenses (7.2%) and Grammar - pronouns (6.9%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 4 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 44 questions and 49 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?
27 papers from 12 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 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
Schools with Primary 4 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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