Error Carried Forward" means if you make a small early mistake but your method is correct, you still get marks for the following steps. The 3 significant figure rule can cost a mark if you round your *initial* answer too early and then use that rounded value in the next step—it introduces a tiny error that grows.
But honestly, in my years tutoring here in Mumbai, I see students lose more marks by *not* rounding at all! They carry a long, messy decimal through the entire calculation, and *that* increases their chance of a slip more than following the 3 s.f. rule. For our students, the rule is a friend, not the enemy. A neat answer is a *bhala* answer.
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