In math, practice makes perfect.  It is recommended that you spend about two hours outside of class for every hour in class working problems from the textbook.  Some students may need even more time than that.  Don't just study worked-out examples but actually work through lots of problems step-by-step without looking at the answers until you have finished.  To avoid looking at the answers before you have worked out the problem on your own, place a folded sheet of paper over the answers in the text as you are working the problems.

Exam 1.  Topics are fractions, signed numbers, and algebraic expressions.
    Do problems on pages 1 to 32 and pages 159 to 174 in the text.
    Also go over applications covered in class.

Exam 2.  Topics are algebraic expressions and linear equations.
    Do problems on pages 175 to 197 of the text.
    Also go over applications covered in class.

Exam 3.  Topics are linear inequalities and the rectangular coordinate system.
    Do problems on pages 198 to 214 of the text.
    Also go over graphs of functions covered in class.

Exam 4.  Topic is systems of linear equations.
    Do problems on pages 215 to 235 of the text.
    Also go over applications covered in class.

Exam 5.  Topics are polynomials and factoring.
    Do problems on pages 236 to 246 and 254 to 266 of the text.

Exam 6.  factoring and quadratic equations
    Do problems on pages 267 to 274 and 285 to 296 of the text.

Final Exam will cover all of the above material.