@Mushety Once you've built up some experience it becomes easier to recognize where you can save geometry in ways that improve the aesthetic overall. I'd say balancing your polycount with good deformations is the hardest and will usually require a lot of experimentation and compromise.
@Mushety - to develop a feel for the rules you'd generally like to abide by I recommend making some 256fes models (256 tris and 256x256 tex) or taking reference from a game with models you really like. PSX and NDS models in particular have lots of clever stuff going on to save geometry.
@UnknownStuffs it's honestly insane a prof could even assign their own fiction for a class, like is that not an extremely arrogant way to portray your work