u/Efficient_Cobbler945

I’ve seen graders comment on this subreddit confirming that there is a maximum of 5,500 words, but how come this is just a general understanding rather than an actual rule in the AP Research description? All I can see is the 4,000-5,000 word limit range, but with AP Seminar it explicitly states the 10% cushion and the hard grading cutoff after that maximum. It would honestly make more sense if the hard cutoff for Research was 5,000 since there’s basically a 1,000 word cushion already. I guess if graders can attest to the 10% being true, that’s great, but I’m wondering if this is something ALL graders must follow or if it’s a subjective rule depending on the specific grader.