Primary 5 English exam paper analysis: 2021
PaperLah has 31 Primary 5 English exam papers from 2021, set by 14 Singapore primary schools, with 2,399 questions worth 3,132 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (23%), Grammar cloze (16%) and Vocabulary (10%); together the top 4 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 97% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 25% of marks, and 2.6% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 77 questions and 101 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 23% of marks in 2021 (all years: 24%); Grammar cloze took 16% of marks in 2021 (all years: 15%); Vocabulary took 10% of marks in 2021 (all years: 12%).
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 | 23.1 | in 30 of 31 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 16.3 | in 27 of 31 papers |
| Vocabulary | 10.3 | in 29 of 31 papers |
| Composition | 10.2 | in 8 of 31 papers |
| Editing | 9.3 | in 27 of 31 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 8.5 | in 28 of 31 papers |
| Situational writing | 6.2 | in 9 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 3 | in 28 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.2 | in 26 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.7 | in 24 of 31 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.7 | in 5 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 1.5 | in 23 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1 | in 26 of 31 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 1 | in 2 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 1 | in 18 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - other | 0.9 | in 7 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 0.8 | in 17 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.7 | in 20 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.4 | in 5 of 31 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.2 | in 4 of 31 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 25%
- Cloze passage 20%
- Composition 16%
- Editing (find the error) 10%
- Other 29%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 25.4 |
| Cloze passage | 19.6 |
| Composition | 16.4 |
| Editing (find the error) | 9.8 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 8.9 |
| Short answer | 8.7 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 5.7 |
| Fill in the blank | 2.8 |
| Word bank | 2.5 |
| Other | 0.2 |
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 | 82.8 |
| 2 | 10.5 |
| 3 | 1.8 |
| 5+ | 0.9 |
How likely a topic comes up
The share of papers with at least one question on the topic.
Show as table
| Topic | % of papers |
|---|---|
| Comprehension | 96.8 |
| Vocabulary | 93.5 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 90.3 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 90.3 |
| Grammar cloze | 87.1 |
| Editing | 87.1 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 83.9 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 83.9 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 77.4 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 74.2 |
| Grammar - question tags | 64.5 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 58.1 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 54.8 |
| Situational writing | 29 |
| Composition | 25.8 |
| Grammar - other | 22.6 |
| Comprehension cloze | 16.1 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 16.1 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 12.9 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 6.5 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 31 papers, 2,399 questions, 3,132 marks, from 14 schools.
- 4 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 23% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 97% of papers.
- 2.6% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA, Practice paper, Other and Quiz / Review / Test.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 5 English exam papers in 2021?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (23%), Grammar cloze (16%), Vocabulary (10%), Composition (10%) and Editing (9.3%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 5 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 77 questions and 101 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?
31 papers from 14 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Weighted Assessment / CA, Practice paper, Other and Quiz / Review / Test. 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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