1000 Word Essays

If it says "your answer should be no more than 1000 words", does it matter if I only have about 780 words?
I am struggling to add more to my essay without repeating myself again or waffling about utter nonsense!

Hi there,
I had this problem too in my third year!
Have you included a brief introduction paragraph, stating what you'll be writing about and the points you'll cover? I know that with a strict low word limit some students end up feeling the pressure and miss out this section, but it could do a lot to add to the beginning-middle-end structure and organisation to your essay.
If you already have this then yes, agree with the above - is there one more example or one more bit of inference you could make?
Hope this helps! All the best 🙂
Holly
University of Bath

With essays and unis, it is normally plus or minus 10%.
However, if it says no more than, I would say your word count should be between 900 and 1000 words.
I would suggest not going over that as at one point, my word limit was about 1000 words and I was about 68 words over (I took out absolutely everything I could possible but left it at that as it only made sense in that format).
If you go under, particularly 22%, I am certain they would reduce your mark for your word count alone, so would you fail, unlikely, would you be penalised, almost certainly.
Try and find other examples in published literature and use them as an example by explaining their findings, even if only to go over the 900 word mark.