At the top right of 3DS Max, below the main toolbars at the top, you'll see a list of small icons. The leftmost two icons, which look like a star and a square, are the most important as far as basic modelling is concerned.



If you hover your mouse over the first icon, it says "Create". Click it, and you'll see the create panel, which contains tools for you to create basic primitive shapes, such as boxes and spheres. After creating a 3D shape, you'll automatically be taken to the modify panel, which is the next icon along.



But if you create a shape and then go off and do something else, you'll have to click into the modify panel again to access the shape's attributes. At the top of the modify panel is the modifier list, which allows you to add modifiers to a shape, such as deforming it in various ways (as well as other, very advanced tools). Below that panel will be the selected object's properties. If no object is selected, this will be blank.