English Language question insights
What 12 years of ICSE Class 10 English Language papers actually asked — by chapter, question length, type, difficulty and diagrams. Every figure is computed from the 337 questions in this bank.
These are descriptive statistics of past papers, not predictions. A chapter appearing often historically does not guarantee it will appear again.
Which chapters carry the most weight
A prominence index combining how many papers a chapter appeared in and its share of total marks.
Chapter prominence index (0–100)
- Composition90/100Appeared in 83% of papers (10/12) · 61.1% of all marks (1075) · 50 Qs
- Unseen Prose Passage58/100Appeared in 83% of papers (10/12) · 12.2% of all marks (215) · 97 Qs
- Grammar57/100Appeared in 83% of papers (10/12) · 11.4% of all marks (200) · 146 Qs
- Letter Writing57/100Appeared in 83% of papers (10/12) · 11.4% of all marks (200) · 20 Qs
- Notice & E-mail Writing38/100Appeared in 58% of papers (7/12) · 4.0% of all marks (70) · 14 Qs
- Writing Formats & Marking (Reference)5/100Appeared in 8% of papers (1/12) · 0.0% of all marks (0) · 10 Qs
Index = 60% appearance frequency + 40% marks share, across all available papers. Historical, not predictive.
Composition leads: it appears in 83% of papers (10 of 12) and carries 61.1% of all marks (1075) across 50 questions.
Most questions asked
Share of all questions, by chapter.
Percentages are of the full 337-question bank.
Most marks asked
Share of total marks, by chapter.
Percentages are of the 1,760 marks across all papers.
Short vs long questions
Short = less than 2 marks (recall / one-liners). Long = 2 marks or more (explanations, diagrams, reasoning).
Overall split
- Short (<2 marks)176(52%)
- Long (≥2 marks)161(48%)
Short vs long by chapter
How each chapter's questions divide between short and long.
- Short (<2 marks)
- Long (≥2 marks)
Most short-answer-heavy chapters
Best for quick recall and one-mark practice.
- Writing Formats & Marking (Reference)100%10/1010 of 10 are short (under 2 marks)
- Grammar88%128/146128 of 146 are short (under 2 marks)
- Unseen Prose Passage39%38/9738 of 97 are short (under 2 marks)
- Composition0.0%0/500 of 50 are short (under 2 marks)
- Letter Writing0.0%0/200 of 20 are short (under 2 marks)
Most long-answer-heavy chapters
Where higher-mark, explanation-type questions cluster.
How questions are framed
Question types
Share of all questions, by format.
- Short answer34%116
- MCQ30%100
- Composition15%50
- Letter5.9%20
- Fill in the blanks5.3%18
- Reference3.0%10
- Summary2.7%9
- Notice2.1%7
- E-mail2.1%7
By marks
Share of all questions, by weight.
- 0 marks3.0%10
- 1 mark49%166
- 2 marks13%45
- 3 marks1.5%5
- 4 marks5.3%18
- 5 marks4.2%14
- 8 marks2.7%9
- 10 marks5.9%20
- 20 marks10%35
- 25 marks4.5%15
By difficulty
Share of all questions, by rating.
- Easy2.4%8
- Moderate46%155
- Hard52%174
Diagram load
Chapters where diagram-based questions are most concentrated.
Most diagram-heavy chapters
Share of the chapter's questions that include a diagram.
Year-by-year trends
Shown as a share of each paper, so years stay comparable even though 2021 and 2022 used the reduced semester format with fewer questions.
Short-answer share by year
Percentage of the paper's questions worth less than 2 marks.
Diagram share by year
Percentage of the paper's questions that include a diagram.
Chapter coverage by year
How many questions each chapter contributed to each paper. Darker = more questions.
Chapter × year heatmap
| Chapter | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composition | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
| Grammar | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | ||
| Letter Writing | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Notice & E-mail Writing | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Unseen Prose Passage | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | ||
| Writing Formats & Marking (Reference) | 10 |
Most frequently tested topics
Recurring topics across chapters.