A good way to get to the top 3 would be to work towards it, not in the 3 first tries in a newbie account of course. Slowly work up to it. Say sending scores similar to that of the top 50 scores for 2 - 3 days.Then on the day u wanna go for the score,
1st score - Send a score around top 50, with a suitable time of course. 2000 onwards shouldn't go wrong.
2nd score- Just go slightly higher, say top 30 with an increased time.
3rd score - Go for the kill, with an even higher time taken. Probably will get reviewed but as long as you take into account the Mods you should be fine?
Of course there might be some things I missed out or mistakes, do point it out!
I hope this helps!