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At university in the UK it's almost always maximums rather than minimums. It's damn hard as well, you never get the word count you actually need to fully cover the subject and always end up desperately counting those last few as you trim it down. My university would cap your grade if you went over the count by a certain % as well.

I do think it made me better at writing though, and it certainly made me aware of how much people are actually willing to read.

I definitely had classes in college that had maximums as well (often assignments were supposed to be 7-10 pages, for example), but generally it's unnecessary and most people struggle to meet the minimums.

Why?