most people new to 3D have to start somewhere. the majority of tutorials out there deal with poly modeling or sub-d modeling, and a few deal with nurbs modeling but usually only to convert to another method later on...

depending on how you started learning (video tuts, text tuts, books, classes, etc.) you'll experience most of these different methods.

i would highly recommend the autodesk maya fundamentals book. this book briefly touches upon each different method of modeling, animation techniques, particles, etc. it's a good all-around tool to get familiar with maya's capabilities without getting too complex straight away.

here is the link.