Civic29,
I'm a candidate for the Class of 2019, but my best advice to your question would be "the highest level you can achieve."
A thought I'm having is Old Grads told their sons how hard Beast is, so they prepared for it. When Beast was easy, their kids and young friends didn't know what to expect, so it was hard. Maybe something cyclical.
Personally, I hope Beast isn't a breeze. I believe my first post explained where I was at about this time last year. I couldn't do a pull-up, could hardly do situps or push-ups, and my best mile was over eight minutes. By the time of SLE, I managed to score at or above average on every event. It just takes dedication and hard work to get through some things, and I don't believe Beast will be an exception.