Primary 6 English exam paper analysis and topic trends
PaperLah has 396 Primary 6 English exam papers from 27 Singapore primary schools, set between 2011 and 2026, with 32,245 questions in total. The topics carrying the most marks are Comprehension (23%), Grammar cloze (15%) and Vocabulary (13%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 98% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 26% of marks, and 1.8% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 81 questions and 105 marks.
These figures describe the school papers in PaperLah's collection, including prelims, not official PSLE papers or topic 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 | 23.3 | in 388 of 396 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 14.8 | in 360 of 396 papers |
| Vocabulary | 12.7 | in 388 of 396 papers |
| Composition | 10.3 | in 96 of 396 papers |
| Editing | 9.5 | in 383 of 396 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 8.6 | in 380 of 396 papers |
| Situational writing | 4.9 | in 101 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 2.3 | in 379 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.1 | in 376 of 396 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 2 | in 65 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.8 | in 148 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.4 | in 362 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 1 | in 283 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 0.9 | in 282 of 396 papers |
| Punctuation | 0.8 | in 117 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.8 | in 329 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.6 | in 195 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 0.6 | in 207 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.4 | in 77 of 396 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 0.4 | in 15 of 396 papers |
| Honesty | 0.2 | in 2 of 396 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.2 | in 67 of 396 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.1 | in 30 of 396 papers |
| Adaptations | 0 | in 2 of 396 papers |
| Climate change | 0 | in 1 of 396 papers |
| Visual text comprehension | 0 | in 1 of 396 papers |
| Plants and seed dispersal | 0 | in 1 of 396 papers |
| Health | 0 | in 2 of 396 papers |
| Proverbs | 0 | in 2 of 396 papers |
| Healthy eating | 0 | in 1 of 396 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 26%
- Cloze passage 19%
- Composition 16%
- Editing (find the error) 10%
- Other 30%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 25.9 |
| Cloze passage | 18.6 |
| Composition | 15.5 |
| Editing (find the error) | 10.3 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 9.3 |
| Short answer | 8.9 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 5.9 |
| Word bank | 4.2 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.2 |
| Listening | 0.1 |
| Other | 0 |
| Number answer | 0 |
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 | 82.3 |
| 2 | 11.7 |
| 3 | 0.9 |
| 4 | 0.1 |
| 5+ | 0.8 |
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 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comprehension | 24.3 | 24.9 | 26.1 | 26.8 | 26.9 | 26.4 | 22.9 | 24.8 |
| Grammar cloze | 21.2 | 19.2 | 18.5 | 15.7 | 19.3 | 19.1 | 22 | 18.9 |
| Vocabulary | 13.5 | 15.8 | 15 | 18.3 | 17.1 | 16.4 | 16 | 18.1 |
| Editing | 13.6 | 13.2 | 13.1 | 13.4 | 13.1 | 12.7 | 11.4 | 11.4 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 2.9 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 3.3 | 3 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 3.3 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.3 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 3.3 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 2.3 |
| Comprehension cloze | 4 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 0 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 0 |
| Grammar - other | 1.6 | 3 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 4.4 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.4 |
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 | 98 |
| Vocabulary | 98 |
| Editing | 96.7 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 96 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 95.7 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 94.9 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 91.4 |
| Grammar cloze | 90.9 |
| Grammar - question tags | 83.1 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 71.5 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 71.2 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 52.3 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 49.2 |
| Grammar - other | 37.4 |
| Punctuation | 29.5 |
| Situational writing | 25.5 |
| Composition | 24.2 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 19.4 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 16.9 |
| Comprehension cloze | 16.4 |
| Listening comprehension | 7.6 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.8 |
| Adaptations | 0.5 |
| Health | 0.5 |
| Honesty | 0.5 |
| Proverbs | 0.5 |
| Climate change | 0.3 |
| Visual text comprehension | 0.3 |
| Plants and seed dispersal | 0.3 |
| Healthy eating | 0.3 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 396 papers, 32,245 questions, 41,456 marks, from 27 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 23% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 98% of papers.
- 1.8% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Mid-Year / SA1, Prelim (P6), Weighted Assessment / CA, Quiz / Review / Test and Practice paper.
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 6 English exam papers?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics are Comprehension (23%), Grammar cloze (15%), Vocabulary (13%), Composition (10%) and Editing (9.5%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 6 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 81 questions and 105 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?
396 papers from 27 schools, from these exam types: End-of-Year / SA2, Mid-Year / SA1, Prelim (P6), Weighted Assessment / CA, Quiz / Review / Test and Practice paper. 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 · Christian Brothers · 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 · River Valley · Rosyth · Singapore Chinese Girls' · Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan · St Hilda's · Tao Nan · Temasek
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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