To Lizzy,
I'm not sure. But i heard of the over 10% thing applies to other subjects. My teacher told me that it dosen't matter, just as long you don't go over the limit too much cos the markers are just going to use the set word count as a guide. But just don't make it too noticiable that you completly exceed the word limit.
Hope that helped.
Schottie,
Also, yeah you don't get the pip mark back unfortunately... you don't get any major marks either for any other subject except for ext 2 english. It sucks how you don't know how well you did for the pip aye, considering how much effort we put into them