General ACCANew 3 hrs 15 mins exam time

Where did you read this?

@johnmoffat said: Where did you read this?

its in the study guide for the 3 hr modules... it wrote that u can immediately write your answers ..

You are quite correct :-) Thank you for pointing it out - I had not noticed the change.

Is it applicable from September 2016?

I just read the P5 study guide and it mentioned that you are allowed the 15 mins planning and reading time before writing in your booklets.

The original post asks if it is true from September. In the study guide applicable from September 2016 it says that the 15 minutes can be used for anything (including writing in the answer booklet). Until then, you cannot write in the answer booklet during the 15 minutes.

I read about this in the P/Q magazine recently. What seems a bit odd to me is that it starts from Sept 2016. Why not from 'right now' and that way candidates in the March and June 2016 exams could do whatever they want with the 15 mins reading time as well? It's not as if there has to be any formal processes changed or anything that would require a little bit of time to implement. It's a simple case of until now, you couldn't write in your answer booklet during the 15 mins reading time, but now you can. Call me cynical, but I reckon level of difficulty will go up a notch from Sept to offset the new, what is now essentially, a 3hr 15mins exam, hence the delay in implementing it - March & June exam papers already written prior to the announcement.

I do not think it has anything to do with the level of difficulty. It is more likely because of the move to computer based exams and the problems there would be in letting students see the questions on the computer without being able to input any answers. Also, even though at the moment you are not allowed to write in the answer booklet during the 15 minutes, you are still allowed to write on the question paper. So many people are already using the 15 minutes to answer questions (especially the MCQ's because then it only takes a second to copy the answer to the answer sheet).