
The ability to quickly select exactly the thing you want to edit is crucial to a smooth modeling workflow. Here are a few.
Start marquee selection from anywhere: currently the selected has to begin from outside of the model.
Paint select faces: click on face and drag mouse to add to selection
partial marquee select: option to select faces that are only partially within marquee window
select forward facing verts/edges/faces only with marquee/lasso selection

adding to this. option to convert selections. examples: convert edge selection into vert selection. convert closed loop of edges to face selection, convert face selection into vert selection.