CA3 paper 1 vs CP3 answers

[Trevor]

Hi,

I am wondering what are the difference, in terms of expected exam answers, between CA3 paper 1 (pre-September 2018) vs CP3 (post-September 2018)?

I have been practicing both versions, what is odd to me is that both of them seems to ask for the same thing - answer to a letter.
In the CA3 paper 1, we are given only 1.5 hours to answer, whereas CP3 gives us double the time for the same task (ignoring the last 10 marks of self-reflecting questions). I have been practicing for speed while doing CA3 paper 1, but CP3 sounds too good to be true, double the time for the same amount of work?

In both versions, there the question usually mention explicitly what they want (refer to February 2017 & September 2017 exams).
There is somewhere in the course note that says:
"Do not educate unnecessarily, just tell them what they want/need to know"
My understanding is I have to answer just those items asked for, nothing more. This seemed to work in CA3 paper 1, I usually don't miss anything mentioned in the examiner report. However in the CP3 version, I tend to miss out many contents although I thought they are unnecessary education.
For example, in the April 2018 paper, I totally omitted the information about correlations (which costed me 9 marks loss!). I only mentioned "cryptocurrencies are not linked to any country's economy, hence diversifying their investments". I thought this should carry the point across, writing about correlation is unnecessary education.

Is the CP3 exam expecting us to explain things more in detail, given the doubled time allowance?

 

[Helen Evans]

Hi Trevor

Thank you for your post. The CP3 exam is more generous in terms of time, deliberately so to try and ensure that the exam is a real test of communication without candidates feeling unduly time pressured and this affecting the answer. This is good news

It is great that you are using the older CA3 questions for further practice, they can be really helpful as they do get us to focus on key skills needed for CP3, ie filtering, structuring and using simple language. In terms of differences I would say that the scenario in CP3 may be rather more involved, there is scope for this given there is more time and advance material is provided enabling you to get to grips with the background ahead of the exam day. Therefore the answer may have a little more information to communicate to reflect that there is more to convey (compared to some scenarios in CP3). That said, as always, the aim is for your communication to address all the questions the audience need answering and produce a communication that would leave your audience satisfied and cover nothing else.

I hope this helps and your studies are going well.

Helen

 

[Trevor]

Hi Helen,

Thank you for the information, that is very helpful.
I am aware that from September 2018 onwards, there is no longer marks awarded for the word count although an expected word count is still quoted on the question paper.

Can I know if that just acts as a guideline and we will not be penalised for going beyond or below the range?
I find myself losing marks for excluding things, in order to stay within the range.

 

[Ian Senator]

Hi Trevor
You'll see in more recent papers that the expected word count is no longer given.
You can of course still lose marks for excluding important things (and, similarly, lose marks for including unimportant things!) so it's now more important to make a judgement on what is and isn't important.
Ian