I just came out of the "dark age" no more than a year ago. Only think I remember is childhood building skill & the name of 2 element; brick & plates.. hehe.. This page just serve as a starting point for anyone who is starting learn the categories of Lego.. Yes, I should add "categories" to my page title, even now I am still learning as I go along. Please join my Sorting group & share how you organize your collection.
Quoting Space Pirate
This is not really an index of the most common elements, rather of the most common categories. Without knowing which element belongs to which category, it is rather useless though, I'd say. I would encourage anyone to browse through the different categories on bricklink, to get a hang of which part belongs where and what elements actually exist. You might want to use your list for sorting then, but without knowing the individual elements, it can get quite confusing. I mean, what is an aircraft element? What's the difference between windscreen and cokkpit? Nice job with the photo editing though ;)