The rank is not the allocation

Getting a rank and getting a seat are two separate processes, and the second one is where most of the avoidable losses happen. After results, you enter a counselling process: you register, you list the courses and institutions you would accept in your order of preference, and an allocation runs against everybody’s lists at once.

Almost every serious mistake in this stage is procedural rather than academic. A missed registration window, a fee not paid by the deadline, a document not uploaded, a choice list left half-filled. None of these has anything to do with how well you did, and all of them cost seats every single year.