Primary 5 English exam paper analysis: 2017
PaperLah has 29 Primary 5 English exam papers from 2017, set by 11 Singapore primary schools, with 2,314 questions worth 3,012 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (21%), Vocabulary (14%) and Composition (11%); together the top 4 topics account for half of all marks. Vocabulary appears in 93% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 25% of marks, and 3.3% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 80 questions and 104 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 21% of marks in 2017 (all years: 24%); Vocabulary took 14% of marks in 2017 (all years: 12%); Composition took 11% of marks in 2017 (all years: 9.5%).
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 | 21 | in 25 of 29 papers |
| Vocabulary | 14 | in 27 of 29 papers |
| Composition | 10.6 | in 8 of 29 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 9 | in 21 of 29 papers |
| Editing | 9 | in 26 of 29 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 7.2 | in 24 of 29 papers |
| Situational writing | 4.5 | in 8 of 29 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 2.9 | in 7 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - other | 2.7 | in 9 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 2.6 | in 27 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.4 | in 26 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.4 | in 22 of 29 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 1.3 | in 6 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 1.3 | in 25 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.1 | in 19 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.7 | in 22 of 29 papers |
| Fractions | 0.7 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.6 | in 14 of 29 papers |
| Ratio | 0.6 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Money | 0.6 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 0.5 | in 1 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.5 | in 5 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 0.4 | in 12 of 29 papers |
| Science - The brain | 0.4 | in 1 of 29 papers |
| Mass | 0.3 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Percentages | 0.2 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Volume | 0.2 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.1 | in 1 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.1 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Decimals | 0.1 | in 1 of 29 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 25%
- Cloze passage 17%
- Composition 16%
- Editing (find the error) 10%
- Other 33%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 24.8 |
| Cloze passage | 16.8 |
| Composition | 15.6 |
| Editing (find the error) | 9.9 |
| Short answer | 8.8 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 8.3 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 5.7 |
| Number answer | 3.6 |
| Word bank | 3.5 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.8 |
| Listening | 1.2 |
| Drawing or labelling | 0.1 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 7% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 77.9 |
| 2 | 12.1 |
| 3 | 2.2 |
| 4 | 0.2 |
| 5+ | 0.8 |
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 | 93.1 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 93.1 |
| Editing | 89.7 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 89.7 |
| Comprehension | 86.2 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 86.2 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 82.8 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 75.9 |
| Grammar - question tags | 75.9 |
| Grammar cloze | 72.4 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 65.5 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 48.3 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 41.4 |
| Grammar - other | 31 |
| Situational writing | 27.6 |
| Composition | 27.6 |
| Comprehension cloze | 24.1 |
| Listening comprehension | 20.7 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 17.2 |
| Fractions | 6.9 |
| Ratio | 6.9 |
| Money | 6.9 |
| Mass | 6.9 |
| Percentages | 6.9 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 6.9 |
| Volume | 6.9 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.4 |
| Science - The brain | 3.4 |
| Visual text comprehension | 3.4 |
| Decimals | 3.4 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 29 papers, 2,314 questions, 3,012 marks, from 11 schools.
- 4 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 21% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Vocabulary, in 93% of papers.
- 3.3% 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 5 English exam papers in 2017?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (21%), Vocabulary (14%), Composition (11%), Grammar cloze (9%) and Editing (9%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 5 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 80 questions and 104 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?
29 papers from 11 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 · Rosyth · Rulang · Singapore Chinese Girls' · St Hilda's · Tao Nan
Schools with Primary 5 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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