I wish teachers would say "about 800 words" instead of "at least 800 words". At least means I'm going to get to 800 and stop, or have to add some extra crap to get up to the amount I need. If teachers said "about", that would cause students to focus more on writing a good answer, and less on just trying to hit that number. No one feels the need to write too much, but there's still an incentive to get close and not write too little. If someone seriously hands in a 500 word paper, it can be judged completely on content. If the student wrote a really good answer, then they're not forced to put extra crap on the end, and if their answer doesn't fully answer the question, then they can be docked on that, and not the low word count specifically.

I feel you. That was always my issue with coursework that had a word limit.