Reading speed for P3

Hussain plz don’t so frustrated my friend…exam is knocking @ the door. So everybody seems very much preoccupied by their own stuffs right now.

to answer ur question. This is, in fact, the challenge/dilemma of all of us taking p3 exam. It is a very time pressured exam which needs lot of exam tech and may be some sacrifices/priorities to get through it. Though the paper seems easy but the huge amt of information to assimilate and to analyse during the exam pose the real challenge.

I have a very slow and messy handwriting so i really get very nervous during exams. Nevertheless, my view of the situation is that we should spend the 15 reading time + may be another 5-10 mins to read and annotate clearly the 1st long case study. But during that time make sure u r as relax as possible to understand and spot as much as possible the main ideas that u will be using for the req sets. Just encircling/ doing certain inference on the margin and annotating with, e.g, for pestel – P: political, E econ, etc. When u r about to write ensure u have the majority of points ready and just write them concisely and in a logical order so that the examiner is clear about what u have written and OTOH u have not wasted ur time writing long stuffs that are simply overlooked by the marker. Normally about 1 hour of writing may be sufficient to score enough points to can easily achieve a pass in this question. Beware that students often spend too much time on this part of the question such that they are unable to complete the whole paper severely compromising their chance of passing. 1 h 45 mins should be enough i suppose.

Now concerning sect B u have to do just 2 questions out of 3. So why waste time read all 3, just select 2 based on the requirements and may be a few lines to understand what bus context is being discussed. 10-15 mins reading and planning will be enough per question and 30 mins for writing the answer as concisely and orderly possible.

During exam don’t forget to stick to u r time allocation strictly (around 1.5 mins/mark) or else u know what.

One final advice is to just attempt 55-60% of each and every part of the questions set and then if there is any time remaining u can return and add some more stuff just to improve ur chances.

Good Luck for the exams!!!

Hi Hussain,

I have always had similar problem with all the ACCA papers. 15 Mins are never enough for me.
Just to let you know, I cleared P3 first attempt. I believe understanding the question right leads you to answer the question right.
This is what I do.
Section A – Read question quick and jot down quick points – whatever first comes to on mind.
Section B – Skim through the choice by first reading the requirement. Skip out the one I wouldn’t wanna try (if I’m unsure of the choice,I read all the options quick and jot doen points again)
When the actual time begins, I read the question once again, understanding each line loud and clear and highlight few points (This would take up few minutes of mine but when I start writing the answers, I am very sure what I am writing. I don’t keep reading the whole question again but yes, I do keep referring to the jotted points.
There has been occasions when I ran out of time, all I do is then finish the answer in points format than essays.
Using above, I have never left any question unanswered.
I know we all have different styles. So see what is best for you but always remember, the key is first to understand the question than to answer.

Learning to write with both hands at same time – so then u can do 40-44 words per minute.

Joke 😉

I’m only right handed. The truth is it is really hard to make any suggestions if you dont actually see handwriting style and ‘actual’ speed of the person.

Maybe you are too neat? Maybe you could have a better, more comfortable pen and you just don’t know because you haven’t tried variety of pens.

1.5 min / mark i think is fair time to write 2-3 sentences with 20-22 word / min handrwiting speed/

Do what you’re good at first, do not exceed the time limit for a particular question. Understand the question and write what is required and hence will earn you marks not what you expected would be asked. You should be okay as long as you don’t spend too much time on one question.

You should aim to keep within your time allocation and break it now into parts of the question, leaving plenty of space so you could back to it at the end, this way you will be aiming to get 50 out of 100 rather then out of 65 which is a lot easier,
They say that you score the most marks in the first 10-15mins of starting to write your answer then you do towards the end of the time therefore making sure you keep to time and write an answer to all parts of the questions means that you can score marks on all parts.
Even if its only a couple of sentences it might be the extra’ few marks you need.

I’m resitting the exam again this session,
Good luck to all.

Hi,

Does anyone have pilot exam DEC14 with solutions? Please send it if you have…

Thakns in advance!

ana.galic@hr.pwc.com