When it comes to entrance exams, the stakes are high. Your score can make the difference between attending Harvard or Jed Clampett U in the Ozark backwoods. It can determine how much financial aid you receive and even what salary you get after school. Although this may not be completely fair, these tests remain a crucial part of the admissions process. Whether you want to be a doctor or a lawyer, a professor or a dentist, you must first pass through a punishing test to prove your worthiness for grad school.

Therefore, knowing how much is riding on your performance, test preparation courses are highly recommended. If you Google test prep, however, you get slammed with a slew of choices from actual accredited programs to Bill’s Test Prep Pow Wow. They offer courses online and courses in classrooms. You can buy books or CD-ROMs to guide yourself through the process. These choices can cost you anywhere from $20 to $1,000. By the end of your search, you may feel like you are playing Test Prep Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey.

How do you know which one is the best for you? Following are a few points you may want to consider when making your choice. Test prep classes can give you a huge boost in these formidable tests if you pick the right one:

1. Test format - Some exams, like the GMAT, are administered on computers at specialized testing centers. Other exams, like the LSAT, are administered in written packets with a proctor standing by with a stopwatch. Obviously, these are two very different testing experiences that require different kinds of practice and preparation. If you are not accustomed to the format of the test, you may experience some difficulty getting acclimated to the setting on the day of the test.

Here is a general rule of thumb: the closer your test prep mirrors the format of the test, the less disorientation you will experience when you take the test. This means that, if you are preparing for an exam administered on paper, do not take a computer-based course. Similarly, if your test is computer-based, do not take a book-based course. The best prep courses for the LSAT, for instance, are those administered in classrooms by a live instructor. The best GMAT courses are taught on CD-ROM or online or at least give you a lot of practice on a computer.

2. Success rate - Every test prep course will claim that they are God’s gift to the world’s future grad students, that they provide this feature or that feature that will have you in the ninety-ninth percentile and have grad schools begging you to attend their school. The best way to find out how they really perform is to do some research beforehand. Websites like eOpinions.com can give you ratings for different courses. Most of these, however, are marketing sites for the test prep companies and therefore are less than objective. A better route is to solicit advice from friends who have been through the process.

3. Personal preferences - People learn in different ways. Those who thrive on social engagement might want to choose the classroom over the online course. Those who learn best alone with a book may want to choose an online course or a manual. What you are comfortable with matters when you are trying to get ready for some of the hardest tests known to man. You must, however, balance this with the format of the actual test. If you are uncomfortable working or studying in a classroom but you are getting ready for the LSAT, you may want to force yourself to study in a classroom, just to overcome that discomfort. Better now than on the day of the test when every minute matters.

Test prep can make all the difference. Make sure you pick the prep course that will have you ready and composed on test day.

That’s right- I unearthed more weirdness than I could fit into one article. Thus, I am writing a sequel. You might be a member of one of these clubs. You might be one of the brave souls who wear Transformer costumes or engage in serious Medieval swordfights in the quad during lunch while the rest of the student body walks by with perplexed looks on their faces. Or you might just be the hopelessly bland, normal kid who ridicules them.

Regardless, weirdness abounds at America’s college campuses. The following five strange clubs are but a sampling:

Princeton Mime Company, Princeton University – In an age where mimes have become an object of mockery, these brave students face their cruel world in silence… and with invisible walls, windows, and props and white face paint. It is assumed that this club suffers from an inordinate amount of communication problems and injuries resulting from collisions with imaginary objects.

Ichidan Live Theatre & Cosplay, Boise State University – For the uninitiated, like myself, cosplay is a craze in which fans of Japanese anime and manga dress up as their favorite characters and come to special events to show off their elaborate costumes. Apparently, even in the spud-loving heart of the rugged West, this movement has gained a group of devotees. This particular club performs anime-inspired stage plays (in costume, of course), attends cosplay conventions, and stages cosplay game shows. Naturally, the club members all have anime-sounding code names like Graal, Venom, and Cloud. Check it out: Ichidan.com.

Society for Explosives Engineers, University of Arizona – This club sounds like a blast (get it?). This dynamite (get it?) troupe is dedicated to educating students about careers in mining, specifically mining through use of explosives. In the process, they get to blow a lot of stuff up. They are a student chapter of the International Society of Explosives Engineers. Check it out: IcsRecruiter.com.

Yellow Brand Organization, UC San Diego – Judging by their rather cryptic website, this student organization is dedicated to combating technical ineptitude in all its forms. Uh-huh…

The Shire of Grey Gargoyles of the Society for Creative Anachronism, University of Chicago – This one is much like the Quill and the Sword in my last article in that it seeks to recreate Medieval life (i.e. swords, armor, feasts, minstrels, women with long, flowing tresses and low-cut dresses), but I had to include it just for the cool name. Check it out: Grey-Gargoyles.

About the author Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.

The college students of today are the leaders of tomorrow, they say. If you take a look at the partying, bizarre fashions, and YouTube videos that come out of most schools, that statement has to concern you a bit. Colleges are bound to be breeding grounds for all sorts of weirdness. Nowhere is that tendency toward weirdness more obvious than in college clubs. From topics as normal as saving the whales to some as strange as dedication to medieval living, college clubs are a manifestation of the budding interests of students. Clearly, some of these buds should never be allowed to bloom. Following are some of the strangest college clubs I could find. I must say, some of them have me worried. I suppose the ones about which we should be most worried are the ones not listed.

The Quill and the Sword, Brigham Young University - Dungeons & Dragons was just the beginning. Dedicated to studying medieval history through "study, thought, and action," this club is composed of guilds, one for each trade. They have sewing guilds, blacksmithing guilds, minstrel guilds, dragon-slaying guilds, etc. They meet every week to sharpen their swordsmanship, organize feasts, and call each other by titles like "His Majesty Charles the Blue" (no joke). Check it out: QandS.org.

Anarchist Society, George Mason University – This club was disbanded in 2006 for reasons we can well imagine. Their activities no doubt included tutorials on building explosive devices, selling candy bars to fund that anthrax stockpile, and field trips to the Capitol Building to assess possible structural weaknesses. The scary thing is, anarchists would most likely be undeterred by a college administration crackdown; they’re probably still out there.

Students for an Orwellian Society, Columbia University - For those familiar with George Orwell’s 1984, this club espouses and seeks to forward the philosophies of IngSoc and Big Brother. For those unfamiliar with the book, IngSoc and Big Brother are bad, intent on stamping out individualism, keeping their population in fear, annihilating any sign of free thought, and forcing everyone to wear identical charcoal-colored pajamas. Take Communist USSR and multiply that times ten. Attention, citizens of the free world: the members of this club must never be allowed to fill any important government positions. Check it out: StudentsForOrwell.org.

The Harvard Tiddlywinks Society, Harvard University - No, ‘tiddlywinks’ does not stand for something else more sophisticated or clever. This really is just a club dedicated to playing tiddlywinks. They eat, drink, and sleep the classic game where players press one plastic disc on top of another, propelling it into a bowl or cup or whatever. Then again, I’d prefer tiddlywinks to anarchy or Big Brother any day. Check it out: HCS.Harvard.edu/~htws/.

MIT Assassins Guild, MIT - This club organizes live-action roleplaying games in which they chase each other around campus with foam dart guns, pretending to be assassins. They pretend to be witches, aliens, demons, and special ops soldiers. I don’t know about you, but there is something frightening about the nation’s most brilliant eggheads chasing each other around, pretending to be the Predator- and it’s not just the inevitable lack of proper deodorant. Check it out: MIT.edu/Activities/Assassin/.

Undoubtedly, there are more weird college clubs out there, clubs who are bent on building a stargate or turning the entire world population into Richard Simmons clones. The funny (or scary) part is, these guys will be your boss or your kid’s first-grade teacher in just a few years. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

About the author Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.