How to prepare for Paper M3 - Part 1 (Guest post by Maryna Welsch)
If I would sit M3 Part 1 in EQE2027, these are the things I would do:
1. Consistency
I would decide early on how I want to highlight and underline information in the paper and then stay consistent with it throughout the whole preparation.
For example:
technical effects → blue
technical problem → green
words indicating the subject matter/claim category → yellow
essential features → red underline
Or whatever system works for you.
The important thing is not which colours you use, but that you use the same system every time. This way, you will start recognising the important information faster and will spend less time deciding how to mark each piece of information.
2. Practise under realistic conditions
I would also try to create the same conditions during my preparation as I will have during the exam.
When practising on your PC, forget about having two screens and multiple tabs open. That is not how WISEflow works.
You can, for example, have your answer in Word and the exam paper in PDF, but otherwise try to keep the setup as close as possible to the real exam.
And don't forget: when both are opened at the same time, you cannot copy from your exam PDF or see your highlights in the exam PDF next to your answer ;)
Unfortunately, in EQE 2027 you cannot print any documents. So it might be important to think about how you will understand the invention by looking at the figures on your screen.
I would probably copy the paragraph explaining the figure to my answer page and open the figure next to my answer when I am trying to understand the invention.
Alternatively, you can also add text to the figure directly in WISEflow. Some people are very fast with this. I have the feeling that I would just spend too much time on it. So please check which system works best for you.
3. Get used to the wording of the exam
You can use the past A papers, even though they are at least one hour longer than what you would expect this year. Otherwise, there should not be any major changes, so they are still very useful for getting used to the wording and style of the papers.
The timing is obviously different this year, so keep that in mind when practising. But knowing what the style typically looks like and getting used to the way the information is presented can save you a lot of time during the exam.
If you are not a native speaker, get yourself a dictionary and use it already during your preparation. I asked my parents to buy and send me one, but maybe searching for one at your public library could also be an option ;)
Do not get used to relying on Google or AI for translations, as those will not be with you during the exam.
4. Time is everything
Of course, the more time you have to practise, the more past papers you can work through. This helps you get used to the wording and style of the papers, but also to the different things that can be tested in the drafting part.
If you have limited time, I personally find the following papers particularly helpful because they focus on different aspects of the drafting part:
2024 – helps with understanding the protection for the product.
2018 – helps with essential/non-essential features and claim categories.
2022 – helps with the problem of the result to be achieved, different claim categories and different types of product claims.
If you feel a bit unsure about medical topics, I would also include either the 2023 or 2025 paper.
And one piece of advice: do not start with Paper A 2022, unless you really want to demotivate yourself. ;)
When you practise a paper, set up your timer and, using your usual methodology, note down:
how much time it takes you to read and analyse the paper and the D documents;
how much time you need to draft your independent claims;
how much time you spend on the dependent claims;
how much time you need for the description.
This will give you a much better feeling for where you are losing time.
Since there will be only a few dependent claims this year, if you don't want to spend more time on them, just draft the dependent claims linked to technical effects and make sure that you are comfortable drafting those.
And after you have practised the past papers, I would definitely do the M3 mock paper from the EPO under real exam conditions. This is where you can see whether all the little things you have practised actually work when you have to do everything within the time available.
Also, after each paper, make sure you carefully study the Examiner’s Report. I would also make a few notes after each paper on what you learned, what surprised you, or anything you want to remember before the exam. These notes will be really useful for your final revision.
5. Find people to practise with
And if you can find people who are going through the same struggle, do it!
I have seen at least one group created for this purpose: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/26390090/
But I am sure there could be more.
It always feels nice to discuss the papers you practised with someone else and realise that it is not just you who had absolutely no idea how the model solution ended up to be like that 😊
If you need more help, or have very limited time and want to practise many different scenarios without having to work through all of these papers yourself, there are still some places left on the Fillun M3 Part 1 study course.
For more details, check: https://www.fillun.com/m3-study-group
Maryna Welsch