In situations like these, by all means please down shift, if you don't you'll just be forcing the engine in an undesired gear which can cause problems.

My assumption of what people meant by don't downshift, is in situations when you have a car infront of you. Many ( I fall guilty) will downshift to a lower gear to pass the car when all you really need to do is give it a little more gas. When you downshift you run the risk of mis-shifting, crucial for you since you're barely learning, plus you'll look like a douche. Just stay away from these bad driving habits.

.. oh and if you don't already know this, remove your foot from the clutch once the gear is engaged. If you ride the clutch, you might not think so but you're wearing the clutch out slowly.

 

Um, no, it isn't purely an autocross/track thing. There are plenty of instances where downshifting is useful that have nothing to do with autocross or the track.

 

I had driven manual cars maybe a total of 15min before I bought my S. I expected about a week curve to be able to drive decent and a couple months to be able to drive at competition level. However I was easily able to master (or be able to drive extremely well) within 24 hours of owning the car. I was able to do this in part by watching lots of Youtube videos. I also bought a $300 computer steering wheel with shifter and clutch pedal along with a racing simulator before driving a manual car. This helped tremendously as I was able to practice performance driving skills without harming a car. I then returned the system after a few weeks. The racing simulator was only about $20 off ebay.