Primary 5 English exam paper analysis and topic trends
PaperLah has 407 Primary 5 English exam papers from 23 Singapore primary schools, set between 2011 and 2025, with 29,472 questions in total. The topics carrying the most marks are Comprehension (24%), Grammar cloze (15%) and Vocabulary (12%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 93% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 27% of marks, and 1.9% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 72 questions and 91 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 | 24.1 | in 380 of 407 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 14.8 | in 335 of 407 papers |
| Vocabulary | 12.5 | in 368 of 407 papers |
| Editing | 9.5 | in 354 of 407 papers |
| Composition | 9.5 | in 78 of 407 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 8.3 | in 330 of 407 papers |
| Situational writing | 3.6 | in 77 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 2.6 | in 360 of 407 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 2.4 | in 66 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.3 | in 347 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.7 | in 120 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.5 | in 326 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 1.2 | in 294 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.2 | in 304 of 407 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 0.8 | in 23 of 407 papers |
| Punctuation | 0.7 | in 90 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.7 | in 183 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.6 | in 244 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 0.6 | in 171 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.5 | in 78 of 407 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.2 | in 27 of 407 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.2 | in 51 of 407 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.1 | in 7 of 407 papers |
| Fractions | 0.1 | in 2 of 407 papers |
| Ratio | 0 | in 2 of 407 papers |
| Money | 0 | in 2 of 407 papers |
| Science - The brain | 0 | in 1 of 407 papers |
| Nutrition | 0 | in 2 of 407 papers |
| Mass | 0 | in 2 of 407 papers |
| Percentages | 0 | in 2 of 407 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 27%
- Cloze passage 19%
- Composition 13%
- Editing (find the error) 10%
- Other 31%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 26.6 |
| Cloze passage | 19.1 |
| Composition | 13.2 |
| Editing (find the error) | 10.4 |
| Short answer | 9.5 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 9.1 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 5.9 |
| Word bank | 4 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.7 |
| Number answer | 0.3 |
| Listening | 0.2 |
| Other | 0.1 |
| Drawing or labelling | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 5% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 81.9 |
| 2 | 11.6 |
| 3 | 1.1 |
| 4 | 0.1 |
| 5+ | 0.6 |
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 | 23.5 | 24.5 | 25.9 | 23.6 | 25.7 | 27.1 | 24 | 28.4 |
| Grammar cloze | 19.1 | 19.9 | 22.1 | 22 | 15.5 | 18.3 | 20.8 | 16 |
| Vocabulary | 14.8 | 14 | 17 | 14.2 | 19.1 | 14.3 | 16 | 14 |
| Editing | 13.6 | 14.2 | 13.6 | 12.1 | 11.6 | 11.4 | 12.1 | 10.4 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 5.1 | 5.2 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.2 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 3.5 | 3.1 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 3.7 | 3 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 3.1 | 3.3 | 1.9 | 3.1 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 2.6 | 2.2 |
| Comprehension cloze | 3 | 2.1 | 0 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 1.4 | 2.9 | 2.1 |
| Grammar - other | 1.1 | 2.2 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 3.7 |
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 | 93.4 |
| Vocabulary | 90.4 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 88.5 |
| Editing | 87 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 85.3 |
| Grammar cloze | 82.3 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 81.1 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 80.1 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 74.7 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 72.2 |
| Grammar - question tags | 60 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 45 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 42 |
| Grammar - other | 29.5 |
| Punctuation | 22.1 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 19.2 |
| Composition | 19.2 |
| Situational writing | 18.9 |
| Comprehension cloze | 16.2 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 12.5 |
| Listening comprehension | 6.6 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 5.7 |
| Visual text comprehension | 1.7 |
| Fractions | 0.5 |
| Nutrition | 0.5 |
| Ratio | 0.5 |
| Money | 0.5 |
| Mass | 0.5 |
| Percentages | 0.5 |
| Science - The brain | 0.2 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 407 papers, 29,472 questions, 36,944 marks, from 23 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 24% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 93% of papers.
- 1.9% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA, Mid-Year / SA1, Practice paper, Quiz / Review / Test and Other.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 5 English exam papers?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics are Comprehension (24%), Grammar cloze (15%), Vocabulary (12%), Editing (9.5%) and Composition (9.5%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 5 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 72 questions and 91 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?
407 papers from 23 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA, Mid-Year / SA1, Practice paper, Quiz / Review / Test 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 · 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 Hilda's · Tao Nan
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 5 English papers
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