BobH has pretty much nailed it, you wont have a really smooth finish after one pass.

Generally 100 shaves is about where people figure out the basics repeatably.

You can make practice lathers, shaving soap isnt so expensive that this is cost prohibitive, make and ditch a lather a few times until you get something good and repeatable.

Map your beard, direction of growth isnt to a template.

learn good stretching, use the stretch to pull skin to a more practical area or direction to shave.