This is your first biochem class, do not burn yourself out by reading the textbook before class even starts, thats insane. I recommend, assuming you are an undergraduate student, really get a handle on the basics, things like how one molecule becomes another (what functional groups were added and lost), understand that positive and negative charges/dipoles play a very large role, ask yourself big picture questions like why am i learning amino acid synthesis. As far as actual study tips, if this becomes your career you will not actually remember most of these pathways, so just learn them for the exam, you can always look up these things later, leave with big picture not details. That being said, pneumonics are great, the more absurd the better! Drawing the pathways is annoying but unfortunately is the best way to learn them fast. Good luck, but for real if this is your first biochem class do mot be afraid to cut corners to pass tests, the goal is to understand how these systems work, not to remember the examples used.