I believe this is a key factor that affects the choice you can get.
Last year, the teacher suggested me selected a popular band 2 CMI school in our area. This can help me to avoid to a very bad outcome if my girl "dropped her band" from band 1 to band 2. (the first 2 choices I selected are the popular / famous schools in our area & HK). If I followed her suggestion & picked that one, I could not confirm my girl that was ranked as band one. Of course, I would get my choice within the first 3 I picked.
P.S. Finally I got the forth one on the list that was the school the teacher recommended. (I picked 3 band 1 EMI schools as my first 3 choices.)