By Lauren Lavelle

Last fall, Alasdair Trotter entered his first year at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business feeling confident that his undergraduate physics degree from Oxford and five years of work experience at Capital One Financial (COF ) had prepared him for whatever B-school had in store.

He was wrong. Trotter, who says he even took extra measures to prepare for B-school by joining online forums and speaking with a mentor at Tuck, was surprised by the intensity and commitment B-school requires.

"I arrived on my first day and was completely caught off guard by the speed at which everything, from classes to recruiting, took place," Trotter says. "You can be told as many times as you want that you will work hard, but nothing, not your undergraduate degree or work experience, completely prepares you for what it will be like."

HIGH PRESSURE.  Trotter's shock in the first few days of B-school is not uncommon. Amish Gupta, a second-year student at Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, also says no amount of studying or work experience prepared him for his first few weeks at B-school. Gupta said he he had heard about how tough the courses are and the long hours they require. What he wasn't prepared for was the immediacy of the recruiting season.

"Recruiters were on campus the first day of class, handing out flyers and hosting events," Gupta says. "No one ever told me how fast it would all happen. I was completely unprepared to start thinking about résumés, interviewing, and where I wanted to work for the summer."

Trotter's and Gupta's first-day surprises will be a reality for thousands of students this fall. Incoming MBA students are generally prepared for the academics: They have completed undergraduate programs, had a few years work experience, and most likely completed some outside research into their upcoming B-school experience.

TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS.   They've probably been advised to draw on all their resources, learn from their classmates, and choose the right team members. And they've undoubtedly been doused with the "business school is like a fire hose" metaphor. While this advice is all valuable, no amount of instruction can prepare you for B-school, Trotter says.

To help newbies get a peek into some of the secrets of the first year at B-school, BusinessWeek.com has collected, via e-mail, some "insider" tips from first year B-school veterans. Sure, all that stuff about time management and teamwork is valuable, but these are some other things you are really going to need to know. They don't cover everything, but every little bit counts.

Don't rush into a textbook. Texts are costly, but you don't always have to buy them, says Mary Bendrick, a 2006 graduate from the University of Delaware's Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics. "Some professors list a textbook as being 'required' for a course but once you're in the course you find you never use it. The textbook may cost $75 to $100 or more." (See BusinessWeek.com, 6/12/06, "Textbook Costs Stir Concern".)

And then there's the library. "The textbooks and course readers are on reserve at the library, and the only time you'll have to compete for them is around finals," adds Alison Leff, a second-year student at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.

Don't sweat the interviews. Recruiting may be hectic, but getting an interview at a top consulting firm isn't that difficult, says Gupta. "Most of the top business schools require that all companies interviewing on campus have as many open interviews as closed interviews. Students can 'bid' on these open interview slots … It doesn't take a lot of bid points to get an interview with them."

"Getting an interview with a smaller consulting firm can sometimes be more difficult," he adds. "They often have a specialty area, and if your background or academic focus does not fall in that category, then it is difficult to get an interview."

Don't trust anyone under/over 30. "If you have graduated within the last five years, stick with people your own age," says Chip Fody, an older member of the class of 2006 at Lerner. Students on opposite ends of the age gap have different goals and agendas, Fody says (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/30/06, "Puffed up Paychecks").

Act smart. "In MBA school there ARE stupid questions and there DEFINITELY ARE wrong answers," says Dan Near, a 2006 graduate of Miami University's Richard T. Farmer School of Business. "In classroom discussions, think about what you are going to say before you say it. Don't speak because you think piggy-backing someone else's thought will get you a checkmark on the professor's participation chart.

Most people want to stay with safe answers that are the least risky, adds Bakhtavar Mody, a 2005 graduate from Lerner. "If you can justify your answer and make other people see the potential benefits from you're your answer, then you have taken a step in the right direction."

Beware the gossip mill. "Business school is like high school—but worse!" says Kerry Twibell, a second-year student at MIT Sloan School of Management. "People gossip about anything and everything. You spend so much time together with your classmates that you enter this warped world that's not reality. It's important to come up for air sometimes."

Tech savvy helps. Seriously consider in investing in a Blackberry or other handheld e-mail device," says Rani Bose, a 2006 graduate from MIT Sloan School of Management. "You cannot imagine the volume of e-mail you will be getting."

"Know Excel applications backwards and forwards before you in," says Kara Penn, a second-year student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. "They make problem sets…infinitely easier, giving you more time to spend on meeting your peers, becoming involved in extracurricular activities, and ensuring time for family and friends.

See the world. "See the world. Many students are told to wait until their second year at B-school to go abroad. But earlier travel can be good, too, says Vivian HuiWen Cheng, a second-year student at the Villanova School of Business (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/8/2006, "No Passport to Success"). "Don't feel like you must wait unitl you've had many courses under your belt," she says. "If anything, after coming back from my trip to Milan, Italy, I was able to apply my learnings not only to the classroom setting, but to my work environment as well.' "