There's no substitute for a good mathematical intuition, especially as you tackle the more difficult problems. But having a standard bag of tricks up your sleeve can be very helpful. Just use them as a tool, not as a crutch.
If you're interesting in this sort of thing, I highly recommend working your way through the Art of Problem Solving texts (www.artofproblemsolving.com).
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There's no substitute for a good mathematical intuition, especially as you tackle the more difficult problems. But having a standard bag of tricks up your sleeve can be very helpful. Just use them as a tool, not as a crutch.
If you're interesting in this sort of thing, I highly recommend working your way through the Art of Problem Solving texts (www.artofproblemsolving.com).
Another great book is "How to Solve It" by Polya (http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Aspect-Mathematical-Method/d...) as it gives a heuristic approach to solving problems.