Learning a New Character

Do you know:
1) your anti-airs
2) some basic combos (Have you practiced them?)
3) some hard-hitting combos, from a jumpin or if somebody whiffs an uppercut (Have you practiced them?)
4) which of your normals are good for specific purposes
5) your reversal options that are unique to your character
6) some basic mixups
7) some ways of taking advantage of the corner/knockdowns
If you do, then go into matches. If not, you still have some homework to do before you will get any consistent results.