What your child actually sits, level by level, and where marks are lost
What the paper is testing
The AEIS mathematics paper is not a general reasoning test. It is a check on whether your child can work at the standard of the Singapore syllabus, in English, under time pressure.
That combination is what makes it hard for children coming from an international or home-country curriculum. The mathematics may look familiar. The wording, the expected working, and the pace usually are not.
The N-1 rule
Your child is usually tested on the Singapore syllabus from the year below the level they are applying for.
A child applying for Primary 3 sits a paper built on Primary 2 content. A child applying for Primary 5 sits a paper built on Primary 4 content.
This is why guessing the level is expensive. If you prepare the wrong year's syllabus, your child can be strong at mathematics and still lose marks on content they have never met.
Confirm the level with MOE's eligibility checker before you buy a single workbook. The S-AEIS 2027 guide explains how the level can differ between the two cycles.
The format
The paper has two parts.
Part 1: Multiple choice. Questions are answered on an Optical Answer Sheet. Your child shades the answer. There is no working credit here, so a correct method with a wrong final answer scores nothing.
Part 2: Written answers. Your child writes the answers in the question booklet.
- For Primary 2 and Primary 3, Part 2 uses short-answer questions.
- For Primary 4 and Primary 5, Part 2 uses short-answer and open-ended questions that require working.
The open-ended questions are where the paper separates children who understand the method from children who can only produce an answer. Marks are awarded for the working, not just the final number.
What the questions look like
Most items are word problems. The numbers are usually simple. The difficulty is in reading the question, choosing the model, and showing the steps in a way the marker can follow.
The topics follow the Singapore syllabus for the year below the application level. That typically includes whole numbers, fractions, decimals, measurement, geometry, and word problems involving comparison and change.
Two things surprise parents:
- The bar model is expected. Children who have never used it can solve a problem and still lose marks because the working does not show the relationship the marker is looking for.
- The English is part of the difficulty. A child who can solve the equation but cannot parse "how many more than" will lose the mark.
Where marks are lost
After enough diagnostic lessons, the same patterns repeat:
- Misreading the question. The child solves a different problem from the one asked.
- No working shown. The answer is right, the method is invisible, and the open-ended marks are lost.
- Bar models used badly or not at all. The model is drawn but does not match the question.
- Time lost on one hard item. The child spends eight minutes on a question worth two marks and rushes the rest.
- Careless arithmetic under pressure. The method is correct and the final line is wrong.
- Units and labels missing. The number is right, the answer is incomplete.
None of these are fixed by doing more of the same worksheet. They are fixed by finding which one is happening and practising that specifically.
How to practise
Three habits do most of the work:
- One timed paper, then a slow review. The score matters less than the error log. For every wrong answer, write down whether it was a reading error, a method error, or an arithmetic error.
- Redo the wrong questions a week later. If the child cannot do it again without help, it was not learned.
- Practise showing working on every question, including the ones the child can do in their head. The habit has to be automatic before the exam, not remembered on the day.
Short sessions, four or five times a week, beat one long session at the weekend. Mathematics retention is built by frequency, not duration.
What a diagnostic lesson does
A diagnostic lesson is not a test. It is a lesson where I watch how the child reads a question, which method they reach for, and where they stop.
By the end, the gap is usually specific: not "weak at maths", but "cannot set up a comparison model" or "loses the final mark because the working is in the wrong place". That changes what the next three months should look like.
If the gap is small, the honest answer may be a plan and no weekly lessons. If the gap is real, the lessons target it instead of covering the whole syllabus again.
Where this fits
The mathematics paper is the second of two tests. The first is the Cambridge English Qualification. If you have not confirmed which CEQ test your child needs, read the CEQ requirement guide before you plan the maths preparation.
For the full timeline, including registration and post-placement steps, read the AEIS preparation guide. For weekly mathematics lessons built around the gap, see AEIS maths tutoring.
Check before you act
Paper formats and level rules change. This guide reflects publicly available MOE information as of 20 October 2026. When this page and MOE disagree, MOE is right. Confirm the format and level on the official AEIS page.