Carlsbad, Calif. – Buying a diamond should be one of life’s more pleasurable experiences. After all, you’ve chosen a diamond as a celebration of joy – for a marriage, anniversary, birthday, or other worthy milestone. But, as you lean over the jewelry counter trying to choose among the sparkling array of diamonds before you, it’s not joy you feel so much as its opposites: fear, confusion, and anxiety.

One way to avoid the diamond-buying jitters is to prepare for the experience. You should learn the language of diamonds so that you understand the terminology of the diamond world. This means becoming familiar with the “4Cs” (cut, color, clarity, and carat weight), the factors that affect the value of every diamond.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) – creators of the international diamond grading system and the same institute that likely trained your jeweler – offers a free crash course on the 4Cs on its Web site (www.gia.edu).

This tutorial, “How to Buy a Diamond,” can be considered a dress rehearsal for your real shopping experience. The setting is a virtual jewelry store whose proprietress, Lucy (a GIA-trained jeweler herself), guides you through five brief, interactive exercises. She will ask you to rank diamonds by color, examine a diamond’s clarity under a loupe, make judgments about the relationship between carat weight and rarity, and learn about the complexities of cut.

Lucy also explains the value of obtaining an independent grading report along with your diamond. A report, like those issued by GIA’s grading laboratory for diamonds and colored stones, provides an impartial and objective assessment of your diamond’s grading characteristics and it’s your best assurance that the diamond you’re purchasing is as described to you.

At the end of the tutorial, which takes about 20 minutes to complete, you’ll even have the chance to download an award testifying to your virtual accomplishment. But what’s most important, you’ll come away informed and confident, armed with enough knowledge to make your actual shopping trip a pleasurable one.

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