^^“Brevity is the soul of wit.” 
FWIW, while I don’t mind if the paper was a few words over (spirit vs. letter), if I’m proofreading my kid’s essay, it’ll be a few words under, just to be safe, and because I agree with @mathmom that you don’t need those last five words (I’m not saying truncate the essay, I’m saying find five words to get rid of in the body of the essay, which is what I would say to my kid if she’s over).