AIBU to think a word limit is the actual word limit?

[iloveruby]

I'm currently doing an MSc and (perhaps naively) thought that the word limit was exactly that - the point where the examiner would stop reading the assignment.

However, when talking to other students it would appear that in past assignments they have exceeded the limit by approximately 10% without comment or it being reflected in the mark.

I'm going to clarify the rules tomorrow but AIBU to have assumed that the word limit was to be strictly adhered to? Interested to hear what others who are academics / students or who have experience in this area think.

AIBU - i am being unreasonable to think essays and assignments should not exceed the word limit and that it isn't unusal for there to be leeway.

AINBU - word limits are there to be followed.

I do feel if the limit is 5k and people have been allowed to go to 7k without penalty - it is giving them an unfair advantage. To include more material and more analyses.

On a professional course I was on, wird limit was enforced - one marker said... If there's 30 of you and everyone goes over loads - it's a lot of extra work for them to mark...

Although heard of one person who was failed for going over by 75 words.. Which I think is riducjous...

And in some shorter pieces... Spent more time editing than writing...

Recall coming up with brainwave by referring to John Smith as John... Which got rid of a few words.

Usually 10 % under or over

OU is 5 percent

given that they probably run a simple word count in Word, when I did my MSc I discovered that it didn't count words that were in a table
Obviously, they will have a fair sense of how many pages, but it is a way to sneak in a bit extra if you need to.
(was a while ago, double check Word word counts still work like that!)

10% over or under the word count for the MA I teach on.

@ThinWomansBrain

given that they probably run a simple word count in Word, when I did my MSc I discovered that it didn't count words that were in a table Obviously, they will have a fair sense of how many pages, but it is a way to sneak in a bit extra if you need to. (was a while ago, double check Word word counts still work like that!)

Or that you pasted in as a picture!

(Ir was a picture of a numeric example in a law exam, seemed more sensible than trying to write out how to calculate a % ownership of a house between 2 co-owners verbally)

You need to check the policy in detail. When I completed my doctorate thesis we were allowed 10% over and that didn't count anything in tables or quotes (there was a lot in my thesis as it was direct research). Was a ballache to count!