Primary 6 English exam paper analysis: 2021
PaperLah has 27 Primary 6 English exam papers from 2021, set by 14 Singapore primary schools, with 2,427 questions worth 3,200 marks. The topics carrying the most marks were Comprehension (23%), Grammar cloze (14%) and Composition (12%); together the top 4 topics account for half of all marks. Comprehension appears in 100% of the papers. Multiple-choice questions make up 24% of marks, and 2.1% of questions are worth 3 marks or more, which usually means showing working. A typical paper has about 90 questions and 119 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 23% of marks in 2021 (all years: 23%); Grammar cloze took 14% of marks in 2021 (all years: 15%); Composition took 12% of marks in 2021 (all years: 10%).
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 | 22.7 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Grammar cloze | 14 | in 26 of 27 papers |
| Composition | 11.7 | in 9 of 27 papers |
| Vocabulary | 11.3 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Editing | 9.9 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Synthesis and transformation | 7.9 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Situational writing | 7.5 | in 11 of 27 papers |
| Comprehension cloze | 1.9 | in 4 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - other | 1.8 | in 10 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 1.8 | in 25 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - prepositions | 1.6 | in 27 of 27 papers |
| Honesty | 1.3 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 1.2 | in 26 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - pronouns | 1 | in 22 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - question tags | 0.8 | in 25 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 0.8 | in 20 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 0.7 | in 22 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 0.7 | in 17 of 27 papers |
| Listening comprehension | 0.5 | in 7 of 27 papers |
| Vocabulary cloze | 0.5 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 0.3 | in 5 of 27 papers |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 0.3 | in 7 of 27 papers |
| Oral and reading aloud | 0 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Maps and directions | 0 | in 1 of 27 papers |
| Map directions | 0 | in 1 of 27 papers |
What a paper is made of
How children answer, as a share of marks.
- Multiple choice 24%
- Composition 20%
- Cloze passage 18%
- Editing (find the error) 10%
- Other 28%
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| Format | % of marks |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | 23.7 |
| Composition | 20.5 |
| Cloze passage | 17.8 |
| Editing (find the error) | 10.1 |
| Short answer | 8.8 |
| Rewrite / synthesis | 8.4 |
| Open-ended (show working) | 5.8 |
| Word bank | 3.4 |
| Fill in the blank | 1.2 |
| Listening | 0.4 |
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 | 79.9 |
| 2 | 11.2 |
| 3 | 0.9 |
| 4 | 0 |
| 5+ | 1.1 |
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 | 100 |
| Vocabulary | 100 |
| Editing | 100 |
| Synthesis and transformation | 100 |
| Grammar - prepositions | 100 |
| Grammar cloze | 96.3 |
| Grammar - subject-verb agreement | 96.3 |
| Grammar - verbs and tenses | 92.6 |
| Grammar - question tags | 92.6 |
| Grammar - pronouns | 81.5 |
| Grammar - articles and quantifiers | 81.5 |
| Grammar - conjunctions | 74.1 |
| Grammar - modals and conditionals | 63 |
| Situational writing | 40.7 |
| Grammar - other | 37 |
| Composition | 33.3 |
| Listening comprehension | 25.9 |
| Grammar - adjectives and adverbs | 25.9 |
| Grammar - word order and sentences | 18.5 |
| Comprehension cloze | 14.8 |
| Vocabulary cloze | 3.7 |
| Oral and reading aloud | 3.7 |
| Honesty | 3.7 |
| Maps and directions | 3.7 |
| Map directions | 3.7 |
Exam types
Which school exams these papers come from.
Key facts
- 27 papers, 2,427 questions, 3,200 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 100% of papers.
- 2.1% of questions are worth 3 marks or more.
- Exam types: Mid-Year / SA1 and Prelim (P6).
Questions parents ask
What topics come up most in Primary 6 English exam papers in 2021?
By share of marks, the most-tested topics were Comprehension (23%), Grammar cloze (14%), Composition (12%), Vocabulary (11%) and Editing (9.9%).
How many questions and marks are in a Primary 6 English paper?
A typical paper in this set has about 90 questions and 119 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?
27 papers from 14 schools, from these exam types: Mid-Year / SA1 and Prelim (P6). 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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