Hi guys!
950-1000 words is okay, you won't be disadvantaged significantly because of your word count if you have 950 words down on paper. It really is borderline though, you should be aiming for the ~1050 region ideally. We believe that 850 words will start to affect your overall mark as far as word count is concerned.
A common concept that's agreed upon by most of NSW's highest achievers in English is that the best essays must have quality AND quantity (i.e. a minimum of 1000~ words is needed for your essay to be competitive). HOWEVER, the latter MUST NOT come at the expense of answering the question to a less intimate and engaging degree. Get as many ideas, analysis and examples down as possible, but cut back and focus on the question if you need to.
An 800 word essay that answers the question might be capped at 18-19/20, but a 1200 word essay that does a poor job of engaging the given question would be capped at 13-14/20. Fail to engage the question, and you're doomed to the nether regions of the C range no matter how many words you have down.
Regards,
Delta Education