GP read it as: "5 x3", like he would read "copy x3", or "copy, three times". It's a natural way of reading "5x3", though I personally read it as "5x 3".

The meta-point here is that English (or any other language) is crap for math, which is why we use mathematical notation. And this bullcrap syllabus is trying to redefine the "x" operator, which gets my goat.