I'm taking Spanish for the first time. Are there any tricks to studying and learning words? Thanks in advance.?

Two main things:

1. Don't learn individual words in isolation. Learn words in clusters and in idioms. For example, instead of memorizing "calor=heat," learn "hace calor/ tengo calor /el calor del fuego".

2. Join or form a study group. It will cut down on your study time, you can test each other, and you will have more fun learning.

Not for me there wasn't. The only thing that helped me was speaking it.

Always learn every noun together with its correct article, so you won't have to wonder later if its masculine or feminine. So, not "felicidad", but "la felicidad". It will save a lot of time later on.