Parenting Times: UPSR 2016 English Paper Format

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

UPSR 2016 English Paper Format - What's New

UPSR 2016 will see the addition of an extra English paper for all candidates. Students will now have to sit for

English Paper 1 (Comprehension/Pemahaman)
English Paper 2 (Writing/Penulisan)

Perhaps it is inaccurate to say that there is an additional paper. There are not extra papers. Students continue to sit for 2 papers, only now they will be counted as two separate subject passes instead of one.

* Both papers are 1 hour 15 minutes each.

Let's have a look at the sample papers provided on the Portal Rasmi Pemeriksaan in greater detail. You can download the pdf of the sample papers from the portal.

Firstly, note that the samples are not split for SK, SJKC and SJKT. Only one sample is given.

English Paper 1 UPSR 2016 (Pemahaman)

Like the BM Paper which we wrote about in our article UPSR 2016 New Format, the English paper 1 has two parts:

English Paper 1 Part A comprise 20 multiple choice questions. 1 mark for each. Total 20 marks.

English Paper 1 Part B has 5 questions totaling 30 marks. They are subjective questions with varying levels of difficulty and include a passage, a poster and a chart with an average of 4 questions each after the given passage/poster. You will see a mix of easy and hard questions for example:

Q24 (a) Imran and his eight-year-old sister are at the supermarket on the first day of the sale. His sister will get a.....

present
10% discount
free ice-cream

(Tick the correct answer)

(1 mark)

Q25 (b) Imran's grandmother loves outdoor activities. Suggest an item for her birthday present and give reasons to support your suggestion.

(2 marks)

English Paper 2 UPSR 2016 (Penulisan)

Do note that the English Paper 2 is not a new paper. Previously students sat for an English Paper 2 as well. The only difference is now it will be counted as a separate paper.

Some time ago, we did a comparison between the English Paper 2 for SJKC and SK.

For the UPSR 2016 English paper 2, only one sample is provided. It looks neither like the SK or SJKC one.

The English Paper 2 has 3 parts ie Part A, Part B & Part C

English Paper 2 UPSR 2016 Part A is fill in the blanks based on given notes. 10 marks for 5 spaces.

English Paper 2 UPSR 2016 Part B comprise transfer of information (3 marks) and composition of 50-80 words (12 marks). In the sample paper, the student is required to write an email to a friend. Eg. shown below

English Paper 2 UPSR 2016 Part B (ii)
Image Credit: Portal Rasmi Pemeriksaan

English Paper 2 UPSR 2016 Part C - Part C is 25 marks and students are required to write a story/guided composition with pictures and words given as guides, similar to the previous papers for SK as well as SJKC. Students can choose 1 of 2 questions.

So what's new for the UPSR English 2016?

Students still sit for 2 papers but now it will be counted as two separate subjects
Paper 1 will now be part objective and part subjective with higher weightage on the subjective part ie Objective 20 marks plus Subjective 30 marks
Under the UPSR old format Paper 1 was 50 minutes, now it is 1 hour 15 minutes. Paper 2 remains the same at 1 hour 15 minutes
Will SK and SJKC/SJKT now sit for the same paper? We have to wait for the announcement on that (Should SJKC use this paper format, then there will be no more sentence making type of questions)