Here is some advice to help you learn Access in a more traditional way.
First, you define the problem - before you write code or design a table, form, or report. Access SHOULD NOT BE OPENED ONCE until you have a solid definition of what you want to do. Think of the problem analysis as a type of road map. If you don't know where you are going, how will you EVER know when you got there?
Second, remember this important fact: Access is as DUMB AS A BOX OF ROCKS. The ONLY thing that Access really does well is to build database objects like tables, queries, forms, reports, macros, and modules. And if you TELL it about inter-table relationships, it will remember them when you build queries involving related tables.
Third, Access will NEVER tell you anything you didn't tell it first - either directly or "how to derive it." YOU are the person who knows what you wanted to do. We don't know, and Access is based on an inanimate object. Therefore, if you have to ask "Now where does this data originate" then you are probably on your own.
Fourth, just remember that with Access, you are building a data model of a (potentially) real-world entity. If the real world says X and the data model says Y then odds are very high that the data model is flawed. In chemistry (my original field), when the theory says one thing and the experiment says something else, the theory is wrong. The database cannot correct you on anything except basic math errors. The tail never wags the dog.
When making your mental exerciser, you learn by doing. Every so often, like maybe before you start any real work that would change your DB, make a backup copy. Like, if you have a DB named "A" then make a copy of A to a set-aside folder and rename A to A_03112025 - or something like that. As you progress, you can delete the older backups, but always keep at least a couple of generations handy. Then you won't end up like me with a hairline that as receded so far from hair-tairing you would think that someone gave the order to retreat.
