Knobby,
I suggest you get your instructor to give you a good briefing on your particular box!
It sounds more complicated than any I've seen before, but not completely different. The PA28s I trained in had 1 row of switches, and 1 dial. The dial selects which radio the mic transmits on. The switches were all 3-position - I think it was up for speaker, middle for off, and down for headset. There was one switch for each VOR, radio, DME and ADF. All of these would normally be in the "off" position. There was another switch, called "Auto", which is normally in the "headset" position - this allows you to hear either Com1 or Com2, depending on the position of the mic switch. Which makes sense, because normally you want to listen and transmit on the same box.
As for listening to multiple things at once, there are lots of scenarios where you might like to do this. For example, talking to once facility while picking up ATIS from a nearby airfield on another box. If you have a VOR and DME tuned to the same frequency, you can ident them both at the same time - the VOR ident is repeated twice, at a medium frequency, then the DME once, at a higher frequency. If you were running a commercial operation, you might wire one of the switches to a tape recorder and switch this to a circuit which your pax can hear, while you're listening to a controller without your pax having to know or care about what you're doing. And the list goes on...
But, generally, knowing where the switches belong for "normal" operation so you can put them back if you knock them is enough!
FFF
-------------