Computer Science GCSE Help PLS - Controlled Assessment

Hey everyone. I have a computer science controlled assessment in about 6 weeks time, but I have no idea how I can prepare for it...Its a 20 hours NEA(Non exam Assessment) and is worth 20% of my total GCSE mark.

I was doing well in the programming part until my teacher started bombarding us with new information. I really wanna do well in this subject. I think I'll be fine for the written exams, but I'm really worried about this controlled assessment, so if you could answer some of my questions I WOULD LOVE YOU FOREVER.

1- What is the best way to learn to program/code?

I know you can't possibly master a programming language in 6 weeks but I wanna get good enough for GCSE level. Codecademy? Youtube? Books probably won't help much. I might consider hiring a tutor but they're really expensive so that's a last resort.

2- Which programming language should I actually use?

In class we've mainly been using visual basic with the visual studio console application IDE over the past year or so. We've also covered a bit on python.My teacher recommends not to use VB though? Some friends of mine are using MySql, PHP and HTML(all in one solution somehow too idk how that works), I don't know which one to use? Every time i ask someone this question they say personal preference but i don't have one since i'm not an experienced programmer obviously. I need an all-purpose, fairly-easy-to-grasp programming language basically(although i don't think that exists i might be wrong though).

3- We have revision guides for our OCR Computing course and there's a section on programming, algorithms and design, testing and IDEs. Do you think it's worth learning all the theory about programming?

It's not like i know nothing about it but it might be worth learning if it helps me with my controlled assessment. Particularly, there's stuff here about flowcharts, pseudocode, Arrays, File Handling, Sub Programs, Storing Data, Defensive Design and Testing which I'm considering to go over deeply, but only if it's worth it, but then the problem will be how I'm going to learn theory and programming language(s) in just 6 weeks time. Hmmm I certainly don't mind hard work so effort shouldn't be an issue with me.

4- Can someone give me a way to actually practise my coding skills? Like maybe trying to come up with a solution to a problem that's GCSE level. It's really hard to find practise questions for this sort of thing...

5- The main parts of the exam are planning/designing- writing a flowchart or something to plan your code(worth 9/80 marks), writing the actual code and completing the task(worth 30 marks), writing a report on testing the program and planning the tests youre going to do(21 marks), writing about "potential refinements"(10 marks) and finally the overall quality of the report(10 marks). Can you give me any general tips on each of these parts of the exam. Approximately how long in the exam should I spend coding, planning and writing a report arghh

And that's about it guys. If you read all that you're a legend, here have a cookie. If you could now just answer any of my queries or have any advice for me in general I'd appreciate it a lot and so will many other students if they see this post.