AEIS Exam: What It Tests, the Format and How to Prepare

The AEIS is how a child from overseas gets a place in a Singapore mainstream school. It is one set of tests, held in Singapore, and a place depends on how your child does in them. One fact catches out families reading older guides: AEIS-Primary is now a Mathematics test only. English is shown first, through a Cambridge English score. This guide covers who sits what, the format of each test, and how to prepare.

Who it is for

• AEIS is for international students seeking admission to Primary 2 to 5 or Secondary 1 to 3 in the following year. It typically starts in July, and successful applicants start school in January.
• S-AEIS, the supplementary exercise, is for Primary 2 to 4 and Secondary 1 to 2 in the same year. It typically starts in January, and successful applicants start school in April or May. Its tests follow the same formats as the AEIS ones below. For 2027, MOE says applications open in early January and the tests are at the end of February or early March (tentative).

MOE’s eligibility checker tells you which test suits your child’s age and the level they may be placed at. Check it before anything else, because the test follows age, not the class your child is in now.

Primary: Cambridge English first, then Mathematics

Before applying, a primary applicant must take an age-appropriate Cambridge English Qualifications test, run by Cambridge Assessment English at an authorised centre in any country, and reach the Cambridge English Scale score MOE requires. The test must fall within the 12 months before the application month, and the result is uploaded with the application. Only then can your child apply to sit the AEIS-Primary Mathematics test.

So for a primary child, English preparation means the Cambridge test, booked early enough for the result to arrive in time. The AEIS itself is the maths.

The test formats

Every test is set on the level before the one applied for: Primary 2 work for a Primary 3 applicant, Primary 6 work for a Secondary 1 applicant.

• No calculators in any Mathematics test.
• Working is marked. For short-answer and open-ended questions, your child writes the working steps as well as the final answer. Open-ended questions need longer, more complex solutions.
• Multiple-choice answers are shaded on an optical answer sheet with a 2B pencil, so practise shading neatly and quickly.
• English Part 1 is one composition from a choice of topics: 2 topics and 200 to 300 words for Secondary 1, 4 topics and 250 to 350 words for Secondary 2, 4 topics and 300 to 400 words for Secondary 3.
• English Part 2 is 50 compulsory questions: 15 on comprehension of two passages, 15 of comprehension cloze on two passages, 10 on vocabulary and 10 on grammar.

Pass marks and past papers

MOE publishes no pass mark and no pass rate. Admission is not guaranteed: it depends on your child’s performance in the tests, and placement on the vacancies in schools and, where possible, where you live.

Nor are there official past papers. MOE and SEAB point applicants to MOE’s primary and O-Level syllabuses, not to papers, and neither offers AEIS papers. Anything sold as an AEIS paper is a publisher’s own practice paper. That is not a reason to avoid them, only to judge them by whether they match the format above.

How to prepare

1. Learn the Singapore way of doing maths. Singapore primary maths leans on word problems solved with the model method: bar diagrams for fractions, ratio and “before and after” questions. A child taught a different method can know the maths and still be slow on these.
2. Practise without a calculator. If your child’s current school allows one, this is the first habit to change. Fractions, decimals and long multiplication by hand need to be quick.
3. Write the working every time. Part 2 marks it, and a child used to giving only answers loses marks they have earned.
4. Sit full timed tests. 34 multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes is under a minute each. That pace has to be practised, not explained.
5. For Secondary English, write to the word count. Practise a composition inside the range for the level, against the clock, so the length is a habit before the day.

Practice in the AEIS format

We write AEIS-style practice at every level: Mathematics for PRI 2/3, PRI 4/5 and SEC 1 to 3, set on the level before the one applied for, and both parts of English for the Secondary tests. Each paper has the same parts, question counts and times as SEAB publishes, and is new when your child opens it.

To be clear about what these are: papers we wrote, not SEAB’s, and we are not connected with SEAB or MOE. In Part 2 your child types an answer, so have them write the working on paper too. English Part 1, the composition, is typed and marked against SEAB’s published PSLE writing objectives; AEIS publishes no marking scheme, so the bands are ours, not a predicted result. A free account includes 3 practice tests, and a plan opens unlimited tests and unlocks the answers and worked solutions.

What’s next

Start on the AEIS practice page. A Secondary 1 applicant is tested on Primary 6 work, the same syllabus the PSLE examines, so the PSLE Maths format guide is useful background too.