Stopped playing starting again So I’m not very good with continuous playing due to time and my schedule etc and thus am not very sure how this game works exactly. 

It seems to have graduated to second year at some point but I’ve missed out on various spells and achievements for first year.  How do I go to obtain them moving forward?

Are there any keys to this game I should know about or a way I should accomplish things? ( I. E. Classes then care of magical creatures then the side games and chats/finding my brother etc?) or does it not matter in the end? 

I feel like I am doing this wrong. Like could not be doing this more wrong than I am sort of wrong. 