The fine details do differ from one colony to another, but 'the big picture' is usually fairly clear. Don't always think "my bees are different" - they may be, but only rarely!
And my suggestion for accelerating your learning and gaining experience faster is to get your eyes (and if possible your hands) into as many OTHER colonies as you possibly can.
Of course go to local association events and demonstrations, but also visit your neighbouring beeks and compare your colonies to theirs. Have they got as much brood? As much pollen? And honey/stores? How clean are the combs? What's the frame spacing in the supers? Where did they get that foundation? Do you agree on what a dummy board should be and how it should be used? Don't forget the big question - "why do you do it that particular way?"
Seeing for yourself how others do stuff is incredibly valuable. (Even if you think they are doing something sub-optimally, you are comparing what you do against what you see - you have more points of reference.) How would you have approached that situation differently?
Thinking of other folks' situations as being a testing ground for your own understanding, in effect gives you many more colonies to learn from.
Get out there, put yourself about a bit. Effort there will allow you to gain massively more experience than you can get from your own colony - so that understanding your own bees comes that much more easily.
But you should aim to get to two colonies of your own. (The bees will help in a couple of months time!) Two colonies is sustainable and requires a real dedication to foolishness or carelessness to wipe out, whereas a single colony is distinctly vulnerable. But, as I said, the bees will almost certainly be trying to make increase this year - your task is to keep ahead of them!
As the Red Queen said (in Alice through the Looking Glass), you'll have to run much faster to actually get anywhere!
A wealth of info on here, you just need to decide whose advice you are going to take - always somebody willing to help.
