Id say give an extra 100-200 safety net as you always talk faster than you plan to. You practise it heaps slow and relaxed, but you can never help the motormouth in front of an audience,.,......
Yeah, like Kimmeh said, it depends on the pace you speak. If you have the problem my friend has, which is speaking really fast because of nervousness, then I guess you should write more than exactly 5 mins when reciting at home.
it should be about 750 words. it all really depends wat ur doing during ur speech. cos if ur acting ur speech out or moving around a lot, u tend to speak at a slower rate. and if ur just gonna stand there and speak, u'll tend to speak at a faster pace.
good luck.
what i would suggest is write it out and then get someone to time you reading it.. by that you should get a general feel on how much u may need to cut back or add into your speech..
i english teacher told me to write the speech so that it is 30secs longer then the required time, eg. for mine (should be 4mins), ive written it so that its 4:30
It depends how fast you talk and what are you talking about and how often would you be looking at your palm cards, i managed to pull off 4 minutes with 400 words haha primarily because i was using all these gestures and talking loud, pausing, and blah blah