tips for a tablet?

Turn off hold-release menu clicking in your tablet control panel for better responsiveness.

Go here and draw for 30 minutes a day with it: http://www.posemaniacs.com/thirtysecond

Experiment with where you want it in relation to your body.

If you're having weird friction issues consider a drawing glove like: http://www.smudgeguard.com/

Just like with a mouse, it takes time to get familiar with it. Dont get frustrated and keep at it.

I've set mine into mouse-mode. I can't use it like a proper tablet at all.

@Ackter, same here. I have 2 monitors and its just too many pixels to map to a tablet like that.

I've pretty much turned every option off as well. I can imagine them being really useful for an actual artist, but I can't use them for toffee.

I liked having the "Undo" button on the pen itself, but i actually dont have any software or drivers installed currently except what windows did after plugging it in now after I kept having serious issues. It is literally a pen shaped mouse and I dont really mind.

To familiarize myself with my tablet, I started a text and picture-based online adventure serial where the quality of the current drawing (as voted by the readers) impacted the successfulness of the actions being drawn. In the process, I have not only just learned how to use my tablet well, but I have also learned some more things about using GIMP and maybe even more importantly: when not to use a tablet. You wouldn't believe how much progress I've racked up since January. I still draw panels for the adventure, but it's hard since nobody wants to give me prompts for the next set of actions.

But, this thread is about your struggles with learning to use a tablet, not mine. I apologize for hi-jacking your thread like some sort of attention monger.