I'm currently working on the Chopin ballade No1 what is the best way to practice it and master it? I am working at it technically in sections now and am following the Cortot edition.

There was a thread on this a while ago....do a search and take a poke around

This Ballade is a very tough piece for the pianist, both technically and musically. Just you must first capture its mood and deeply feel it. My teacher told me about it that it is serious music. Play it powerfully and with passion.

To learn it, i'll give you some guidelines about what i did in learning this Ballade.
First of all, you'll find some easy parts and some very hard parts. Don't just concentrate on the hard parts like the coda, agitato and neglect the easier part (main theme, the part after the RH arpeggios). They are just as important in order to display the musical ideas Chopin wanted.

Give great care to fingering and to pedalling. You must be comfortable with them at slow speed in order to be able to tackle these parts at speed later. Another thing, try to keep as much as you can to dynamics stated in the score. I think Cortot's edition will be good enough.

And finally, don't expect to be able to play the coda well in a couple of days or even a week. It needs to be played so slowly many many times and with proper accenting as in the score. The difficulty of the coda stems from the fact that it is played in the very end of the Ballade; after about 8 minutes of extreme concentration and virtuositic playing, so make sure to get the nerves for tackling it.

Good luck !!