If you're going to a contest, you might want to do a few things first.

You'll be best off if you can manage a little practice before the contest. But not actually competitive practice, since you don't want to risk a mid-air before you even get to the contest. Just get a friend to fly back and forth in a nice, predictable way, and try to basically follow him a bit. Once you get good at pulling up behind someone, have the guy you're chasing do some figure-8s and other less predictable things (again, go easy) and try to stay roughly behind.

At your first contest, if you only have one plane, take it easy at first, and stay out of the middle of the action. It's really easy to get sucked in to the middle and take an early mid-air from a plane you never saw coming.

Most guys take a few heats to get comfortable with multiple planes in the air at once in a small area. You don't want to fly in to the ground just because there is a lot going on. It's rather common.

Go easy, pick someone to chase who's flying a plane that is simular in performance to yours, and see if you can get behind them.

For specific tactics on scoring cuts, there are a lot of differnt ways to go about it, things to look for and so on. A lot depends on personal style and how you like to fly and how your plane compares to the guys you're chasing.