Are there any tips or tricks for a beginner learning Mandarin Chinese?

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I am taking Mandarin Chinese 101 at my college and I am really interested in being able to understand the language as much as possible but I find myself being restricted by not being able to understand the tones, as well as memorizing all of the characters. Do any other native English speakers have experience with learning Mandarin? Are there any tricks for memorizing characters that helped you? Thanks