Maths is one of those subjects where you just have to 'do' and just keep practicing until you never want to look at a textbook ever again.

From my personal experience, If you want to do really well in a mathematics subject, you have to expose yourself to as much of it as possible.

I like to see different perspectives on how to solve problems to find what best suits me. To do this, I;

• Read through the textbook myself
• See how the teacher solves it
• Youtube (there are some really good teachers on there)

By doing this, you are pretty much pulling everything apart and retaining the information that works best for you.

Some people go through the whole unit before school even starts. This gives them an immense head start to the course. While your classmates are struggling to grasp a concept, you'll already have a sound idea and with your teacher reinforcing it to you a second time, it really helps with retaining the information in your brain.

Getting a tutor also gives you something thats hard to get during class as the teacher has to help another 20 odd students. Tutors have just gone through what you are doing so will have a fresh mindset and be able to help you on a far more personal basis catering for your needs.

Print off as many past exam papers as you can find, and complete them under timed conditions. This will be the best practice you can get for the exam. Also, this isn't recommended but if you are really serious about a high score you could also purchase multiple textbooks or borrow a CD off a friend just for that extra bit of exposure.

And finally, the number one rule is to rinse and repeat. A few weeks after you finish a chapter, a lot of important information may have disappeared. To remedy this, redo the chapter review a couple weeks later just to refesh everything and that will keep most things in there for a few more months ;)