Blender has thousands of settings that you can customize to make your experience fit the way you work. I'm going to share with you a few that will help make your experience in this class a bit easier and more productive.

To get to the Preferences window, open Blender and select Edit > Preferences. Alternatively, you can select Cntl+comma (PC) or Cmd+comma (Mac) as a shortcut.

Blender Preferences

Got Keyboard Without Numpad? The Numpad on a keyboard is used to switch to various views around your project. If you have a keyboard without a Numpad, you'll want to switch your number keys along the top of your keyboard to work as the keys on the Numpad. Do this by selecting the Input tab along the side, then look to the upper right, and select the Emulate Numpad option.
Got Functionality? Blender is an extensible application allowing you to add functionality with additional Add-ons. Most of these Add-ons are free, and some are paid. Below is a list of free Add-ons that you should set up right away. These are already built into Blender, so all you need to do is enable them. Select the Add-ons tab, and use the search button in the upper right of the window, then check the box for the add-on you want to enable: Auto Tile Size Extra Objects A.N.T. Landscape Images as Planes Material Utils Specials Node Wrangler Archimesh
Got Themes? Blender has a bunch of preloaded theme presets to change the color scheme of your Blender windows, but you can also completely customize it as well. Take a look at the Themes tab and have fun. There's also a Reset (upper right) button, just in case.
Got Files? Blender has some default file directories that should probably be changed. The current locations aren't bad, but I have a suggestion for a better workflow. Select the File tab and make some changes to at least the Temp settings. I set mine to point to the Downloads folder as a temporary holding space for those files. I work on a Mac, so the file path you see in the image is specific to Macs. Use the file folder icon on the right to find the location of the folder where you want to send your Blender info.
Got Versions? Versioning is quite simple in Blender. Just set the amount of versions you'd like to have for each of your projects, and you'll always have that many saved backup files. Select Save & Load from the left menu, then choose the amount of versions you'd like to have.
Got Saved Settings? To save all these settings and have them ready for the next time you open Blender, you MUST select the hamburger button at the bottom-left of the window and be sure that Auto Save Preferences is checked. You can then close the User Preferences window.