Although I'd been to the IOM for may years on holiday I never learned my way around the course as a course, just roads between places I wanted to be. Over 22 years I had done precisely 3 laps on a motorbike (one of which was a GN125) before I took off down Bray Hill in 2012. My way of learning the Course was to have a day with an experienced competitor in the van where we broke the course down into chunks where you could ride it as you saw it and then bits where you really had to slow down, and bits where you could ride through flat out even though you couldn't see through it.  I never watched on board laps as it all looks flat and featureless to me.  Joey Dunlop once said the went from places he liked to places he liked.  That is probably as good advice as you'll ever get.  Be assured though that it does all come together once you start putting in the laps.  It also gets addictive.  I was on a real downer in 2014 when I didn't get a ride in the Manx or the Classic Races.  Really depressed.