Do we have to get near the word/char max in longer secondaries?

For schools that have say a 500 word or 3000 char limit, is it advisable to take up all that space? I'm at that point where I may be able to start recycling content in a way that can sufficiently answer the prompts without taking up all that space.

Would I be able to get away with using only 70-75% of that allotted space or should I really squeeze myself to get closer to that limit?