executing commands, correct syntax?

[michael ponds]

Hi all, as you can tell from the section of the forum, im a complete and utter newbie with mysql.
So i have downloaded the mysql community pack located on oracle, along with workbench. I think i managed to configure it properly (probably not, though).

Heres the problem; when i try to enter commands into the mysql command client i am constantly getting the 1064 error code (incorrect syntax), however, i am directly following and entering the commands given from my uni lab instructor, and for every command i always get error code 1064. Here are some examples of the commands i have been trying to use;
mysqld --standalone;
mysql -u root -p;
create database cits_database1;
mysql -u root <cits_database1>;
mysql -u root cits_database1 < H:/MyDocuments/databases/lab1/create_president.sql;
and pretty much all other commands i find on the internet that try to solve these issues
i suspect the last few commands do not work because it failed to create the database Cits_database1
i have tried to execute these commands on workbench to with no avail, even tried to simply copy in a table thats already formatted for workbench.
Could it be that i cant connect to the mysqld server? i have made sure that port 3306 is not blocked by any other programs or my firewall. Im fairly certain my user has all privelleges (but it may not). After many failed attempts i downloaded a program called Xampp to open the mysql server but this didnt work either.

Thanks a lot to anyone that helps me and sorry if i ommited some important information, im not quite sure what is required to solve this.also im using mysql server 5.6.