Start with the tutorials that ship with it, and keep going. It's going to take more then 30 days before it stops feeling like someone stole your thumbs, as with most 3D apps. If you're interested in great modeling tools with a low learning curve, I'd suggest checking out Silo. Don't expect it to much more then model and…
point and drag I guess,- not so much parametric stuff (but you can if you want) you ask what one does with 3dsmax but what do you want to do with it?,- is it characters, animation, architecture, industrial design or even something else? because all that is possible with it. Have a look at some beginner tutorials on the…
then get your hands on some poly modeling tutorials and have a look at polyboost a 3dsmax plugin that bossts poly modeling alot. Max is already great at poly modeling (better as maya imo.) but with polyboost you get everything and even beyond of what you´d expect. Agreed with silo,- perfect modeler and very cheap - try it…
I'm familiar with sculpting...the day I opened up zBrush and set the Atrocitosaurus from the 3DWorld tutorial in front of me and watched the first half of the recorded work of the author, I went on a sculpting frenzy... ...I am familiar with gmax, never really made anything worthwhile in there but am considering retrying…