The ranking tests are a very good way of gaining more money. Back in the Tutorial at the beginning of the game, you are given the option of taking a SeeD test. This option also shows up in your menu screen, under the next to last menu, Chartreal (sp?). Accessing the Chartreal menu will bring up a menu that will answer various questions to the game, and a Test menu. If you answer all the questions in a test correctly, you will go up 1 SeeD rank.

At the stage of a level 5 SeeD ranking at the Graduation ceremony. I gained one rank at the train scenario, and the 5 more with the tests. The maximum ranking that you earn at the Ceremony (so far) seems to be Rank level 7. I will post a chart that gives an idea how to get to what rank at the Ceremony later

Answers to the tests, levels 1 through 30:

Fighting in Timber
In Rinoa's home town of Timber, use fire magic on all the enemies for maximum damage.

Strengthening your Guardian Forces
When confronted by an enemy who has magics that you haven't seen before, draw them 100 times, especially the stronger ones, and stock them. This may sound tedious, but it can vastly increase your Guardian Force's strength.

This will help you get abilities such as Power Junction and Magic Power Junction and assign them magic.

Draw early, Draw often
The only way your characters will increase in power is through drawing more powerful magic. If you don't take the time to draw from your enemies, you'll find yourself hopelessly outclassed. The number of "uses" per Draw is determined by both the strength and rarity of the spell, as well as the Drawing character's magic power. If you have to, find a weak enemy and Draw repeatedly from him - he won't run out. It's no cheesier than fighting Ogres and Creeps for hours on end to buy silver armor, now is it?

Draw from bosses
Bosses, especially early in the game, often have spells you've never seen before. Draw from them to learn the new magic. Also, many bosses have rare Guardian Forces that must be Drawn out of them. If you kill them without Drawing, you will miss the Guardian Force (and feel really lame when your friends start talking about how cooool Alexander is, and how they can't believe the Pandemonium summon! And you didn't get either).

Fighting in Timber
In Rinoa's home town of Timber, use fire magic on all the enemies for maximum damage.

UFO and getting a Rare Item
When you are moving around world map, later in the game you can see a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object). Even if you have set the ablity "Encounter Nothing", you can meet it. There are four places where you can see them:

1. In the desert in the south of Esta.
2. In an island to the east of Trabia Hiades peninsular.
3. In the seashore near Timber.
4. Near Winhill.

Magic Junction
Without upgradable armor, and with barely upgradable weapons, this is the only real way to improve your statistics. And boy, do they improve. The more powerful the spell - and the more uses a character has Drawn - the greater the added effect. Two examples: A character with 891 total HP had her HP statistic junctioned to 100 uses of Cure 2. Her HP jumped to more than 5,000; more dramatically, her status immediately became critical! When another character had his Agility statistic junctioned to 100 uses of Haste, he could take three turns to another party member's one! Dramatic shifts in power are caused by Junctioning Magic. Do not overlook the importance of this ability!

Special abilities give you the edge
In Final Fantasy VIII, enemies are always at the same level you are. It's impossible to find "weak" enemies to beat up on for easy level gains. As in Final Fantasy V and Tactics, the winning edge comes not from sheer statistical superiority, but from more strategic ability matching. "Power+40 percent" will drive your point home with a vengeance. "Auto Reflect" gets your party preemptively prepared for those tough magic opponents. "Reduce Encounter Rate" is a Godsend for weakened parties deep within a dungeon. Our current favorite ability is "Double Magic, Single Cost." The only thing more painful than Ultima would have to be Ultima - squared.

Call on your Guardian Forces
For better or worse, Final Fantasy VIII is heavily skewed in favor of the Guardian Forces. Don't summon them, and you will lose. Summon them, and you stand a decent chance of success. The extra damage they do more than offsets the time spent summoning them. The enemies' power is designed to withstand the GFs, though, so they still won't be pushovers. Even though you'll be calling your GFs often, you'll still find yourself dying quite a bit; Final Fantasy VIII is hard compared to recent titles in the series.

Always Junction every GF all the time
One-, two-, or three-person party - it doesn't matter. Always keep every GF Junctioned to a character. Otherwise, they're just sitting in your inventory, dooting around, probably playing the Card Battle game with each other, wondering why they're not earning experience. If you got it, baby, flaunt it! Make sure GFs are always out on the battle field, increasing their levels and abilities.

Don't let your GFs fight alone
Most attack GFs have a "Support" ability (called "Ouen" in Japanese). It costs only ten AP to learn. LEARN IT IMMEDIATELY. Now, when you summon your GF in battle, press "Select" as the casting begins. See that meter in the bottom right-hand corner? It starts at 75; press the "Square" key rapidly to increase the number. When the red X appears, stop! Pressing it now returns the counter to 75. When the red X disappears, resume pressing "Square" like there's no tomorrow. The higher the number, the more powerful the attack. My personal record is pumping an attack up to 216 (from 75). There is a difference. In close battles, a "normal" vs. a "pumped up" attack can mean the difference between life and death.

Card Battle
Sure, it may seem like a cheesy minigame, but it's fun ...too fun. You'll soon find that what begins as an innocuous pastime soon swells into something more important than the story itself; yeah yeah fate of the world blah blah blah you've got to get those Character Cards! And later in the game, when you discover that rare and powerful Cards are required to be "morphed" into items necessary to upgrade your weapons to a reasonably high level ... well, you'll feel really stupid if you haven't been keeping up with the Joneses. Everyone in Final Fantasy VIII's world loves the game. So should you.

Keeping Monsters Weak
For the less talented among you, there is an answer for keeping the enemy from becoming all too powerful. Seeing as the enemy's level rises with yours, keep your character's level low by using the Card ability. This will keep monsters easy to defeat at the expense of your characters having a lower level as turning a foe into a card does not give you experience points.

Easy Heal 3's
If you have the Guardian Force Siren, by using the ability of recovery magic refinement, you can turn a tent into 10 Heal3's. If you buy 30 tents, you can have 100 Heal3's for each character in your party.

Easy limit breaks
Wait until one of your characters get below 100 HP, when that character's turn is up press O untill their limit break appears. In the demo it only works with Zell and Squall. You can also do this at full health, but it takes longer. Be careful not to press O too many times you might miss the limit break! The lower the HP, the better chance of getting a limit break on your turn. It's also good to do this when during a GF spell. It takes practice.

Beat the T-Rex... The easy way
To beat the T-Rex in Disc 1 with ease, coupled with lots of experience points and AP, simply follow these tips; Learn the ability 'Countdown to Death' by the Ice Queen (Shiva) and draw a magic that causes blindness (from a boss).

When you reach the battle with the T-Rex, cast blindness and then 'Countdown to Death'. The lizard cannot hit with anything, and as the numbers get smaller, death creeps up on the fella, granting you the easiest victory you could ask for.

You get 700 experience points and 10AP.

Use Diablo for maximum damage - by Christophe Monin
To beat the Rubulm Dragon in Laguna's short story easily (on Disc 2) or when you want to get the GF Bahamut, I advise you to use the GF Diablo who may do high damage against this dragon (9999 Damage).

General tips from Pete - by Peter Stephens
Always fight. There is no point in escapimg unless you are about to die. AP is vital as the game gets harder and harder. Also take your time and speak to everyone. They may tell you tips or give information which builds up a story. Don't rush the game; take your time and enjoy it. It isn't often that you get the chance to play a game of this quality.

Easy Limit Breaks - by Lam Chin Siong
1) Junction your character with status attack - Death magic to 100.
2) After which, kill any own character with that attack. It should be instant death.
3) Then, use revive magic (not the full revival) to revive the character. That character life should be yellow now.
4) When it is that revived character turn, keep on pressing triangle until the limit break comes out. It should be easier since the limit break is easier to come out when the character's life is yellow.
5) This work better if the character max life is 9999, then after revival, it will still have 2000 odd life to

In control of hits - by Alwin
When in battle, you can control your own critical hit! I found out that this only works with Squall. When Squall hits the enemy, Hit the R1 button at the same time. If you succeed, the control pad (Dual Shock) should shake and you will notice you will have done more damage!

Junction 1 Magic to 2 abilities... - by Josiah Chan
First, you must have 100 of the magic you want to share between 2 abilities. Junction that magic to any of the two abilities, then junction any other magic to the other ability. Find a character that doesen't have any of these two magics. Give 1 of the 100 magic to that character, then exchange the other magic with that 1 magic and now both abilities are junction with 100 of that first magic!

Double magics - by John Smith
Lets say you have 100 ultima magics make sure that one of your three team members with you doesn't have it. Now equip ultima on something and one magic like fire1. Make sure one member doesn't have that either. Now go to the screen were you can trade magic with other characters. Let's say Squall has the 100 ultimas equiped and the fire1. Now give 1 ultima to a party member making sure he/she doesn't have that magic. Then take the fire1 or someother magic that is equiped and give it to the party member that you gave 1 ultima to. You have to place the magic over the1 ultima. the 1 ultima should dissappear. Check your junction and you will see 2 ultimas .