lol its not like crime or anything! though I don't really know
what happens, since last year we did face to face enrolment so you can't enrol yourself in the wrong subjects (see how crap NSS was?). All I can imagine is if you don't have a good enough reason to be there they'd take you back down to normal comp - but thats what I think.
My suggestion is try and contact Richard to get into higher comp - good lecturer, good content (harder assignments), better class. If after several weeks you find 1711 is too hard drop down as soon as possible.
This form was what people used to transfer from 1011 to 1711 last year, maybe it can help you decide:
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs1711/consent-to-do-1711.html
Basically, 1711 students are expected to be motivated workers.
ed: handwriting recognition was in COMP1721 - higher computing 1B, not COMP1711 - higher computing 1A
Remember to qualify for higher computing 1B you need at least a D in COMP1011/COMP1711 in session 1.