How important are significant figures?

[bobisnotmyname]

I'm not very good with significant figures, I try but always give one or two many figures to what the VCAA answers have. In the exam will I loss a mark every time I do this which I have heard (I think that would be too harsh) or does it not really matter, thanks

[zsteve]

Yes they do matter, and it's not that hard, esp for division and multiplication. Just write your working down to the right sig figs and it will be good from there - keep in mind the number of sig figs required and it becomes easy.
From what I know, they can only penalise one mark for sig figs (I'd advise checking with your teacher) but now is the time for mark scrounging Get out there, make a difference, and practice! PM/post in chem thread if you need help

[extremeftw]

 They are very significant.

[warya]

Really not that important, they only check it in one part of the exam and you can only lose ~1 or 2 marks across the whole paper. That being said, I don't really worry about the multiplication/addition/log differences-I just quote the lowest number of s.f. as given in the question e.g. if they said find mole if 0.203M NaOH in 20.00Ml, then answer is to three sig figs, its worked for me so far, haven't lost marks in sacs because of it and my teacher is really harsh.