Think beyond your three highest cards.
High cards can win unwanted tricks, but passing them automatically is not always best. Look at the whole hand: which suits are short, which low cards give you safe exits, and what will be left after the pass?
Passing your only one or two cards in a suit can create a void. Later, when that suit is led, you may be able to discard a dangerous card instead of following suit. Remember that the cards you receive may refill that suit.
Keep an eye on spades.
The queen of spades is worth as much as all thirteen hearts combined. If you hold the ace or king with few lower spades, you may be forced to win a trick containing her.
Low spades can help you follow suit without taking the lead. Holding the queen with several lower spades is different from holding her alone; judge the support around a card, not just its rank.
Notice who cannot follow suit.
When someone plays off-suit, you learn that they have no cards left in the led suit. That matters the next time you consider leading it: they may be free to send points your way.
Track public information rather than trying to guess every hidden card. Watch for the queen of spades, the higher cards already played, and players who have run out of a suit.
Sometimes taking a trick is useful.
A trick without points costs nothing. Winning it can give you control of the next lead and a chance to play a safer suit. Always losing the lead is not automatically good strategy.
The match score matters too. Late in a close match, the best choice may be the one that protects your position rather than simply avoiding every possible point in the current hand.
Too many points can mean a plan.
If one player keeps collecting hearts and the queen, they may be trying to shoot the moon. Taking even one point yourself prevents that player from collecting all 26.
Trying to shoot the moon is risky. You need a credible way to capture every point card, not merely several high cards. If the plan fails, the points you captured count against you normally.
No single trick wins every hand.
These are starting points, not guarantees. The passing direction, your received cards and the public play all change the right decision.