Should i fill choices exactly according to previous year cutoffs(2020), or should i also put college branches which are closed thousand or two thousand above mine rank?

Hello,

You need to fill the preferences of institute and branch in the order of priority. You can categorize it in to two groups. The first group list can consists of institutes and branch in which you wish to seek admission and the chances of getting seat in that particular institute and branch is high. This list should be given the top priority as you will have decent chances of getting seat in these institutes/branch based on previous year cut off. The first group list can consists of institutes and branch in which you wish to seek admission and the chances of getting seat in that particular institute and branch is medium to low. So the top priority should be given for the institutes/branches in which you have decent chances of getting seat when considering the previous year cut off and next the  institutes/branches in which you have slight chances of getting seat when considering the previous year cut off (institutes for which the previous year cut off is higher than your rank). It is to be noted that cut off depends on factors such as total number of candidates appeared, difficulty level of examination and total number of seats available etc. So it may increase or decrease this year based on above mentioned factors.