The WordPress dashboard has a lot of stuff on it, most of which you will never need. In case you missed it in previous posts, here is a screen shot of the dashboard (click on it to increase the size):
You can get rid of any most of these sections permanently by going to the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Click on the “Screen Options” link and you will see (again, click on the image below to view it better):
Each box corresponds to a section on the dashboard. You can tick or untick any of the boxes to make those sections go away. You can also decide whether you want to see the dashboard laid out in 1,2,3,or4 columns.