I am determined to understand how to conjugate Russian nouns. I've learned all the endings. for all the cases, singular and plural, for all three genders. I've learned the spelling rules. I've learned about hard stem endings and soft stem endings. And yet I'm still confused! Why? Because of all the stress patterns! Stem stress, end stress, mobile stress. My Russian text books, when they introduce a new noun, don't think it necessary to mention what happens to the stress in any case but the nominative.

Do I need to look up every new word in my dictionary (which helpfully gives stress patterns) or am I getting stressed over something which isn't really important?