Building the preference list

List every option you would genuinely accept, in the order you would genuinely accept them, and list more of them than you think you need. The single most common error is a short list built on optimism — it produces no allotment at all in the early rounds, which is a worse outcome than a modest allotment you could have upgraded from later.

Order the list by what you actually want, not by what you expect to get. The allocation already handles the expectation part: it will not give you something above your rank because you listed it. Listing an ambitious option high costs you nothing and occasionally gains you everything.