Eddy, I suggest getting the program again, if you can. If you find some basic tutorials, that's all you need. I started out with the basics, making boring Rogue Spear maps on r3.1. After I found out how to make basic rooms, I explored the functions for those export plugins. So I learned how to use edit mesh, the sub options for it(I didn't learn how to use all of them, in fact, I still don't know most, and I just learned how to color things on sub-scales), then I learned the UVW mapping, booleans, and then I played around with animations, beginning to learn how to move objects as a whole. I still don't know how to change the shape of objects, like bending certain parts and not others, but I'll learn eventually.
The thing I've realized is that friends help the most. Without one person who's been helping me understand a lot, I never would have gotten past the 2nd step on the tutorial I was following. I had no idea what it ment to add an "Edge loop", but once he told me all I had to do was cut the faces and configure one of the snaps to verteci's and midpoints, it came together.
So my best suggestion is to get it and find some basic tutorials, just to learn the functions, not how to do specific things; you'll learn that in due time.