  The increasing sophistication and accuracy of numerical simulations of
compact binaries (especially binary black holes) presents the opportunity to
test the regime in which post-Newtonian (PN) predictions for the emitted
gravitational waves are accurate. In order to confront numerical results with
those of post-Newtonian theory, it is convenient to compare multipolar
decompositions of the two waveforms. It is pointed out here that the individual
modes can be computed to higher post-Newtonian order by examining the radiative
multipole moments of the system, rather than by decomposing the 2.5PN
polarization waveforms. In particular, the dominant (l = 2, m = 2) mode can be
computed to 3PN order. Individual modes are computed to as high a
post-Newtonian order as possible given previous post-Newtonian results.
