1) Begin by only looking at students who said that they would be able to make the weekly planning meeting. (Those who needed to be moved to another section, or had fairly easily resolved conflicts were also taken into consideration.)
2) I went down the first column reading students responses, and when I read a good response I wrote down the students name on a piece of paper. (If I was unsure about the first response, I read the response to the second question).
3) After this first round of eliminations I would go back and read the answers for all of the questions from the students who's names I had written down. Students who stood out or seemed like particularly good candidates were starred.
4) Then using the list I had written down I chose what I thought were the top preceptors to fill the available slots for each class. Depending on how many names you have written down and how many spots are available will determine whether you need to use starred students as well as those who only had their name written down, only use students who you had starred, or if you have to eliminate some of those which you starred.
***I found this method was effective for all of these situations though, because you will almost certainly have enough students' names written down (starred or not) to fill all of the positions, so you don't have to re-read through applications again (which is time consuming) to find a couple more. Moreover(if you only need a few preceptors but have many applications) this process allows you to deal with applications on a case by case basis, instead of looking at many good applications at once which renders you unable to remember who is who, and causes you to have to re-read answers many times. Not to mention that if you would like runner-up preceptors, you already have the names written down, and you won't need to search through the applications again to find some.
5) Circle the names you have selected and make two columns to the right: one for first preference study groups time, and one for second preference. Find and write down all of the first and second preferences for each selected preceptor. Then search for matches. I would match as many preceptors first and second preferences as I could and then refer back to the spreadsheet for the remaining few whose top preferences didn't match (usually there was a match in their third or fourth preference)
6) Type up the names of each pair along with their corresponding study group meeting time in an email and send it to the program coordinator, and contribute the final decisions on the master Box document!
A zillion thanks to Allison Cahanin, SP fall '13, for sharing her thought process!