i believe studying for software has no real formulas, you just really gotta know your theory work, but for algorithsm, it's a definite continuous practice, i mean people hate algorithms primarily because they don't think sequencially just like the computer executes it's task
you see writing algorithms is a matter of breaking down the steps in your mind and tackling them one by one
for example they want you to write an algorithm and had provided a scenario for you
your first goal will be to declare the variables your gonna be using in your mind, you then read the question slowly and understand the requirements and slowly implement, you can first try to implement each requirement in it's appropriate control structure then once that's completed you can amalgamate a few control structures and bind the processes together to make it flow better.
it's all the matter of taking things step by step and not taking it too hard on your brain, i have noticed that the things i see in exams and doubted that i knew it i had seem to achieve extremely good in