I hadn't noticed anything as low as 3 xp, but I do know that they award something like 10% of the normal xp for the official module. But think about it-- I was level 20 at the end. The story represented something like 2 months time in the game world. Sure, some people learn fast, but to go from being someone who barely knows what a sword IS to being a legendary swordmaster in 8 weeks is a bit much.
I always thought that was silly even in pnp. A mage, for example, should study for decades to get great power (usually the case with NPCs), but a PC can go from magically inept to Grand Archmage in about 1 year game time.
