Cards... that is relatively easy if you ask me, I resarted 3 days ago and am preparing for the SeeD-exam. I first made Quezacotl learn the card command and got Ifrit. I card a lot of 'Glacial eyes', 'Bite bugs' and 'Fastitocolon-Fs'. This way you get a lot of AP without the EXP and 'Jumbo Cactuars' and 'Elvorets'. Chalange the Card-lady (what's her name) to get the 'trade rule: ALL' this way it goes faster, play a lot of games but always check if the rule 'ALL' is active or you could lose it again. This way you get a lot of good cards. I got the first 5 pages and more, For some reason I haven't got the 'Jumbo Cactuar' card yet. :mog:

That spider-thing (ATM-something) is hard to beat, not impossible, but only on the bridge. I was told that it could only be done with Ice-Magic (Shiva, Blizzard, Blizara, Blizaga) and not junctioning it with 'ELEM-ATK'.
This counts for all 3 or 4 fights (I only once had to fight 4 times, must've pushed some wrong buttons). I play on the PC so I don't know if it counts for the PSX-version, Just wanted to warn you and not blame me IF it doesn't work. I was also told that you would be able to get Seifer, who was supposed to look at Squall more positive after the exam witch he didn't.