Gender really has little to do with it so leave that out, what your capable of doing is what matters. Your new so you really have nothing to tell you what's best and no one can really tell you what's best, trial and error is the course often taken and for good reason.
Get what you can afford after finding as many answers as you can, but after that throw out the cost factor, it's all ridiculous from there on out, but once you hit on what's best, the cost although ridiculous will be averaged out over several season making it much more reasonable.
Understanding the geometry of a bow will help out. A long ATA will be good till you get yourself figured out. Mistakes will be made and they will be consistent so making a mistake in a lake will have little effect over all. Make the same mistake in a cup of water and the effects are enormous. A big bow shows off little in the mistake department, where a small bow will make the same mistake huge.
There's a boat load of things that go into making a shot that will effect the result, narrowing down the variables will help you get to the bottom of why the arrow didn't hit the mark.