Welcome, Sheryl. Just a word of encouragement, I think a lot of us have found this course of study difficult, so you can feel right at home. Just take baby steps and don't be discouraged. So you mess up now and then. Don't look at it as failure, only as opportunities for growth.
By now you probably have your books. Once you get into the ICD-10-CM, learn to use the Guidelines. As a new student I had read that advice from several from others, but was so overwhelmed with everything else that I didn't bother. And I was having a hard time and not making good grades. Finally I started sending questions to the instructor; that helped, but she, too, referred me to Guidelines. I was pretty far into the course before I really discovered the Guidelines. I doubt if you or anyone else is as dense as I was, but here it is. Guidelines are in front of the ICD-10-CM. Example: Sometimes your document mentions neonate. Age matters in coding; so how old is a neonate? Guidelines page in my book is ix - gives age information. Example: I was really hung up on "other" and "nonspecified" until I found information on Guidelines page 3. That marvelous discovery brought a lightening blink to my mind and that is when Guidelines became my NBF. Don't try to memorize these guidelines. Just use them one at a time as each issue arises in the test or exercise question. The index for the specific guidelines begins on page 1. I don't use it much because of the very small, close print - too hard on the eyes, but I do thumb through looking at the bold hi-lited information, which is not a good use of time, but at least I can see the print. Once I find the heading I want then I deal with the tiny print.
Enough blab from me. Welcome and best wishes.
Donna G