Generally you want to keep your heart rate up and take minimal rest if you are trying to cut down.
In general...
1-5 reps is good for strength and size
5-10 is good for size
10+ is good for some size but really more for volume, won't promote as much size. Almost like pure cardio. You won't get a lot stronger lifting 50% of your max 35 times.
While trying to cut, generally you still want to keep your volume up, so you don't lose all of your strength or size gains. High volume is really hard to have when you are doing low reps and high weight. You generally need more rest on the high rep days, which doesn't help to keep your heart rate up. A lot of people try to do super sets with 10-15 reps. This will be low enough weight that you can still exhaust the muscle, and get enough intensity to get your heart rate going, but still let the muscle recover enough to go again without taking a 5 minute rest.
As you become more advanced, the general wisdom will start to fall apart, but you should have a better feel for what your body needs.