Primary 5 English exam paper analysis: 2023
PaperLah has 29 Primary 5 English exam papers from 2023, set by 12 Singapore primary schools, with 1,662 questions worth 2,263 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (24%), Composition (14%) and Grammar cloze (13%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 90% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 26% of marks, and 1.9% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 57 questions and 78 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 24% of marks in 2023 (all years: 24%); Composition took 14% of marks in 2023 (all years: 9.5%); Grammar cloze took 13% of marks in 2023 (all years: 15%).
Where the marks are
Topics ranked by their share of all marks. The blue ones above the line together make up half.
Show as table
| Topic | % of marks | Papers |
|---|---|---|
| Comprehension | 24.4 | in 26 of 29 papers |
| Composition | 14.1 | in 8 of 29 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 13.4 | in 18 of 29 papers |
| Vocabulary | 10.6 | in 22 of 29 papers |
| Editing | 8 | in 20 of 29 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 7.4 | in 18 of 29 papers |
| Situational writing | 6 | in 8 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 3.1 | in 21 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.7 | in 20 of 29 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.6 | in 3 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.3 | in 8 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 1.3 | in 19 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 1.1 | in 15 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 1.1 | in 16 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.1 | in 17 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.8 | in 12 of 29 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 0.7 | in 1 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.6 | in 14 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.3 | in 3 of 29 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.3 | in 2 of 29 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.1 | in 2 of 29 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 26%
- Composition 20%
- Cloze passage 17%
- Short answer 10%
- Other 28%
Show as table
| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 25.8 |
| Composition | 20.1 |
| Cloze passage | 17.1 |
| Short answer | 9.5 |
| Editing (find the error) | 8.9 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 8 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 5.3 |
| Word bank | 3.7 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.4 |
| Listening | 0.3 |
| Other | 0.1 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 3% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
Show as table
| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 84.8 |
| 2 | 10.6 |
| 3 | 0.9 |
| 5+ | 1 |
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 | 89.7 |
| Vocabulary | 75.9 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 72.4 |
| Editing | 69 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 69 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 65.5 |
| Grammar cloze | 62.1 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 62.1 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 58.6 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 55.2 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 51.7 |
| Grammar - question tags | 48.3 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 41.4 |
| Grammar - other | 27.6 |
| Situational writing | 27.6 |
| Composition | 27.6 |
| Comprehension cloze | 10.3 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 10.3 |
| Listening comprehension | 6.9 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 6.9 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.4 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 29 papers, 1,662 questions, 2,263 marks, from 12 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 24% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 90% of papers.
- 1.9% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: Weighted Assessment / CA and End-of-Year / SA2.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 5 English exam papers in 2023?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (24%), Composition (14%), Grammar cloze (13%), Vocabulary (11%) and Editing (8%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 5 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 57 questions and 78 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 12 schools, from these exam types: Weighted Assessment / CA and End-of-Year / SA2. 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.
Practise real Primary 5 English papers
One question at a time, marked instantly, with a dashboard that shows which topics need work. Free during the beta.