They are simple questions with answers already typed out in the manual. The manual won't hurt you. Just look up the specific words you question in the index. In brief, might I suggest making a VERY simple scene and keep your render options very simple. Make some benchmarks. Increase the numbers and compare your pictures and their render times. By keeping picture resolution small and the contents simple your render times will be fast but will give you scale by which you can measure the consequences of certain settings. This is better than doing a multi-character scene in a dense forest and finding out three days later that depth of field wasn't the way to go. There is nothing wrong with you're Bryce5. Have fun.