Primary 6 English exam paper analysis: 2018
PaperLah has 35 Primary 6 English exam papers from 2018, set by 17 Singapore primary schools, with 2,889 questions worth 3,653 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (26%), Grammar cloze (16%) and Vocabulary (12%); together the top 3 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 100% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 27% of marks, and 2.6% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 83 questions and 104 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.
Compared with all years: Comprehension took 26% of marks in 2018 (all years: 23%); Grammar cloze took 16% of marks in 2018 (all years: 15%); Vocabulary took 12% of marks in 2018 (all years: 13%).
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 | 25.8 | in 35 of 35 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 16.2 | in 31 of 35 papers |
| Vocabulary | 12.1 | in 35 of 35 papers |
| Editing | 11.1 | in 35 of 35 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 9.1 | in 34 of 35 papers |
| Composition | 7.7 | in 6 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 2.9 | in 35 of 35 papers |
| Situational writing | 2.5 | in 6 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 2.1 | in 35 of 35 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 2.1 | in 7 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.7 | in 35 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.7 | in 11 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.9 | in 34 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 0.9 | in 23 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 0.8 | in 27 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.7 | in 21 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 0.4 | in 16 of 35 papers |
| Climate change | 0.4 | in 1 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.4 | in 6 of 35 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 0.3 | in 1 of 35 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.1 | in 5 of 35 papers |
| Health | 0 | in 1 of 35 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0 | in 1 of 35 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 27%
- Cloze passage 18%
- Editing (find the error) 12%
- Composition 10%
- Other 33%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 27.4 |
| Cloze passage | 18 |
| Editing (find the error) | 11.5 |
| Composition | 10.1 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 9.6 |
| Short answer | 8.6 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 6.7 |
| Word bank | 5.3 |
| Fill in the blank | 2.5 |
| Other | 0.1 |
| Number answer | 0 |
| Listening | 0 |
Marks per question
Share of questions worth 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5+ marks. 2% have no marks printed. Higher-mark questions usually need working.
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| Marks | % of questions |
|---|---|
| 1 | 83.7 |
| 2 | 11.6 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 0.1 |
| 5+ | 0.4 |
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 | 100 |
| Vocabulary | 100 |
| Editing | 100 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 100 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 100 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 100 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 97.1 |
| Grammar - question tags | 97.1 |
| Grammar cloze | 88.6 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 77.1 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 65.7 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 60 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 45.7 |
| Grammar - other | 31.4 |
| Comprehension cloze | 20 |
| Situational writing | 17.1 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 17.1 |
| Composition | 17.1 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 14.3 |
| Climate change | 2.9 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 2.9 |
| Listening comprehension | 2.9 |
| Health | 2.9 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 35 papers, 2,889 questions, 3,653 marks, from 17 schools.
- 3 topics carry half of all marks.
- Most-tested topic: Comprehension, 26% of marks.
- Most common topic across papers: Comprehension, in 100% of papers.
- 2.6% 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 6 English exam papers in 2018?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (26%), Grammar cloze (16%), Vocabulary (12%), Editing (11%) and Synthesis and transformation (9.1%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 6 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 83 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?
35 papers from 17 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 · 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
Schools with Primary 6 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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