geoff18 said:
well if i know i defintiely dont get it, i rather use my first preference on something else i guess
You will get the first preference your UAI is enough to get into, unless they've changed the system since 2004.
If your UAI is 88.25 preferences look like this:
Preference 1: 90 UAI
Preference 2: 88 UAI
And someone else with a UAI of 88.0 has preferences that look like this:
Preference 1: 88 UAI
Preference 2: 87 UAI
You're not going to miss out on your second preference purely because someone else had it has the 88 UAI course first and you had it second (I hope I've articulated that right, but someone correct me if I'm wrong [if it's 3unitz, don't bother]; I'm a little rough around the edge on this as I did my HSC 3 years ago). You wil get into the first course that your UAI will be able to get you into. You will not be "wasting" your first preference on aiming for something that's a little beyond your UAI. I was 1.5 points off my course in 2004 and still got in. Because the cut-offs are not fixed, you do stand a real cahcne of getting in. Demand for that course may be down this year, hence the UAI will be lower, and since you're a measly 1.75 off, you're by no means throwing a preference away. If you were five points off the UAI for a Sydney uni course and the cut-offs had been rising with each passing year,
then you'd be wasting a preference.