One of the best ways to start going about the process of the 'learning curve' is to start thinking of spells by school. You have access to the spells menu on Pretender Creation and so you can know your early spell strategy by knowing and targeting key spells in key schools. Or trying to maximize the most from certain schools for both pretender and mage spells.

The only thing that makes this harder is knowing what type of mages you will have per race. Sunray's compilation is very nice for this and as soon as I am able; the thematic differences reference.