Length of secondary essay answers

[Engrailed]

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1. For example, if a particular school has several essay prompts, would it be weird if one/some were almost at the character limit while the others were only 60-80% of the limit? Would the people reading the essays view it as not putting enough effort into the other answers?

Also:
I studied continuously until college graduation and have been working full time for 2 years and will continue working until starting med school next year (I hope🙂
For these questions:
A. I have taken at least a year off from school since college graduation. Yes / No
B. I plan to take time off from school this year while I apply to medical school. (Answer “yes” if you are not a full-time student this year.)

2. Would the answer be YES for both?


Thanks 🙂

 

[honeybee87]

Not at all, I think anything above 75% is using up most of their space. Personally, I’ve always been at above 95% but that’s just me.

EDIT: and some, like the gap year question, it doesn’t make sense to use up all the space

 

[Pathdocmd]

1. Say what you have to say. If it "only" 60-80% of the allotted space, no problem. Using <40-50% of the space might hurt you.

2. Yes to both.

 

[LizzyM]

Before reading the other replies, I guestimated that filling less than 60% of the allotted space is suboptimal. YMMV.
Yes to both questions about gap time.

 

[honeybee87]

Before reading the other replies, I guestimated that filling less than 60% of the allotted space is suboptimal. YMMV.
Yes to both questions about gap time.

Even if the word limit is 500 words would you recommend >60%? I have 250 words at the moment

 

[LizzyM]

Even if the word limit is 500 words would you recommend >60%? I have 250 words at the moment

Better to leave it as is than to pad it.