Before you use the ODK you should know the following:
The ODK uses the STL classes string and vector heavily, and map internally.
Microsoft Visual C++ users: There are bugs in the string implementation shipped with Visual C++ 5.0 (I think also in 6.0). Although I can't vouch for its accuracy in all situations, Wayne Ouchidia's web page has fixed most of them for me.
If you're not familiar with GGS, try it out.
Play a game, for instance against ant. You will probably lose unless you are quite good.