Need SOOOO much help!

[waterbear]

FC means Free Chlorine, that's chlorine that is availabe to act as a sanitizer. The type of test kit you describe sounds like it uses OTO as the reagent and gives you a yellow color to compare. It only will test total chlorine which is a combination of free chlorine and combined chlorine (CC). Get yourself a good drop based test kit that will test:
FC Free Chlorine
TC Total Chlorine
(by subtracting the FC reading from the TC reading you will get your combinded chlorine (CC) which ideally should be 0)
pH
ALK Total Alkalinity
CH Calcium Hardness (only important if your pool is plaster, you have a heater, or have VERY hard or soft fill water)
CYA Cyanuric Acid, also known as stabilizer or conditioner. This acts as a 'sunscreen' for your chlorine and helps protect it from degredation by UV rays in sunlight. It is a two edged sword, however, and too high a level can cause all sorts of problems with algae and will require running your FC at higher levels to compensate.

I would HIGHLY recommend Ben's kit that is sold on the sister website http://www.poolsolutions.com but there are kits from other companies that will work. Walmart even sells a 5 way drop based kit for about $15 dollars but it will only measure total chlorine. You want to look for a kit that uses the DPD chlorine test (color change is pint to red), or even better , the FAS-DPS chlorine test (a titration test that is extremely accurate) instead of one that uses OTO (color change is yellow)
DO NOT USE TEST STRIPS since they will not give you the accuracy you need to successfully balance your water and monitor your chlorine levels.

Once you get your kit post (in the water treatment section of the forum) your:
pool size in gallons
pool finish (plaster, fiberglass, vinyl)
FC
TC
pH
ALK
CH
CYA
and you will find that you will get the help you need to get your pool clear and sparkling in a very short time!