Help with study material!

[samonmars]

Hello fellow nerds!
Some background information: I'm in year 9 this year; bright-eyed, bushy tailed and awestruck by the prospect of getting into my dream uni with my dream degree. I've already made goals, and I have my future set out in front of me. (I'm that kind of person)
I am planning on choosing Maths Methods in year 10 and then continuing on from there with Specialist as one of my 3/4 VCE subjects because of the course I want to get in to.
I don't want to do Methods as a 3/4 subject because I am much rather a straight-forward, either-this-or-not person, rather than an open-ended, problem-solving person. That's what I've heard about Methods, anyway,
Now, I would say I'm okay at maths. I enjoy it, I'm definitely not as skilled in it as I am in English, but I'm not somebody who can't stand the idea of maths. Fortunately for me, science and maths have always been easy for me if I actually sit down and study and revise, because I have been blessed with being able to retain information fairly well. I just have to put that skill to good use, which is a little harder for me to do. 
However, I have looked through the study material for these two subjects, and I feel I am in no way ready for the material. My school just hasn't prepared me enough. I know it is the start of the year, but I want to be sure I'm not going to go into that classroom next year and be pulled flat up off my backside because I've just not had enough practise.
So I want to know what I can do now to prepare myself. We're doing geometry formulas right now (volume, surface area), I'm grasping it well and I feel I could progress further into things that are a bit more advanced to prepare me, but I'm just not sure what. I really do want to do well in Specialist, and I've heard it's quite difficult, so some early practise sure wouldn't hurt.
So if someone very smart and wise could point me in the right direction? I would be much appreciative. 
I could speak to someone at my school, my first choice would be my maths teacher, but I would feel terrifically awkward doing so. I'd probably leave that option open as a last resort.
Anyway, thank you so much!
 - Slightly anxious, future biomed year 9 student.

[jazzycab]

If you wish to do Specialist, then you must do Methods 3/4 either as a corequisite (at the same time) or a prerequisite subject (This is a VCAA rule, not a school directive or advice).
If you are concerned with the problem solving nature of Methods, you will have the same issues in Specialist, however, given that you are only in Year 9, you have plenty of time to work on those skills, but given that you're worried about it now, I do wonder if accelerating into Methods is the best idea for you - perhaps wait another year and develop your skills a bit more.
There isn't a great deal of material from Year 9 or 10 maths that directly translates to Methods (or Specialist) content, however, the skills from both year levels are vitally important, particularly in geometry, algebra and graphing. If you feel you have a good handle on that material in class, I think the best thing you can do is develop your problem solving skills.
I believe ICE-EM produce some really solid problem solving materials for year 9 and 10. The MAV also publish materials of similar type, so both of these might be good to investigate.
I would, however, encourage you to approach your teacher to seek additional resources - they may or may not have access to these or similar resources, but they will appreciate your initiative and it will help to build rapport with your teacher - an extremely underrated learning tool. If you like your teacher and get along well with them, you would be surprised at how much better you will learn from them in the very same class and with the very same teaching style.
All the best!

[Quantum44]

You have to do methods 3/4 either beforehand or concurrently to spesh 3/4, so if you want to do spesh you don’t have an option of forgoing methods. Since you’re in year 9, there is absolutely no expectation of knowing much spesh-level maths as you won’t even be starting spesh 1/2 until year 11. The best thing you can do to prepare is to make sure you enjoy your last couple of years before VCE and stay up to date in maths, doing as well as you can in the tests.

[samonmars]

If you wish to do Specialist, then you must do Methods 3/4 either as a corequisite (at the same time) or a prerequisite subject (This is a VCAA rule, not a school directive or advice).
If you are concerned with the problem solving nature of Methods, you will have the same issues in Specialist, however, given that you are only in Year 9, you have plenty of time to work on those skills, but given that you're worried about it now, I do wonder if accelerating into Methods is the best idea for you - perhaps wait another year and develop your skills a bit more.
There isn't a great deal of material from Year 9 or 10 maths that directly translates to Methods (or Specialist) content, however, the skills from both year levels are vitally important, particularly in geometry, algebra and graphing. If you feel you have a good handle on that material in class, I think the best thing you can do is develop your problem solving skills.
I believe ICE-EM produce some really solid problem solving materials for year 9 and 10. The MAV also publish materials of similar type, so both of these might be good to investigate.
I would, however, encourage you to approach your teacher to seek additional resources - they may or may not have access to these or similar resources, but they will appreciate your initiative and it will help to build rapport with your teacher - an extremely underrated learning tool. If you like your teacher and get along well with them, you would be surprised at how much better you will learn from them in the very same class and with the very same teaching style.
All the best!

You have to do methods 3/4 either beforehand or concurrently to spesh 3/4, so if you want to do spesh you don’t have an option of forgoing methods. Since you’re in year 9, there is absolutely no expectation of knowing much spesh-level maths as you won’t even be starting spesh 1/2 until year 11. The best thing you can do to prepare is to make sure you enjoy your last couple of years before VCE and stay up to date in maths, doing as well as you can in the tests.

Thank you so much!  I have a feeling virtually nobody in my year level is having the same concerns as I am lol
This is great advice, from the both of you. I'm glad to hear that there isn't an expectation of me having more knowledge than I'm being taught in year 9 to do methods in year 10 (I did know that you needed to do it in year 10 to be able to do specialist in year 11-12, I just don't want to do it as a VCE subject). I will probably ask my teacher for some extra stuff to do to challenge me, they sure won't be upset.
I am actually enjoying school at the moment, surprisingly enough. I'm not finding anything particularly challenging right now, this is all just me being super paranoid and making sure I have pathways to where I wanna go. A me thing 
My problem solving skills really aren't the best so I will also check out those resources!
Thank you again~ !