Baking measurement question!!

Okay, so I can cook. Like I can cook a large variety of different things, and I learned real fast that cooking and baking are NOT the same at all.

That being said, I enjoy cooking and want to learn how to bake also. But I don’t have a stand mixer, and every time I try to bake something, it comes out horrible . Even if I follow the recipe exactly how it says. So I just bought a $400 stand mixer last night hoping that my baking would improve.

Well, I was on TikTok earlier looking up bread recipes and anything that requires baking from scratch and I realized that I may know what the problem is. I was reading a recipe and it calls for 4 1/2 cups of flour. And I got to thinking about it . Does 4 1/2 cups of flour mean 4 WHOLE cups of flour plus another half cup of flour?? Or does it mean Four actual HALF cups of flour? I think that’s what’s been the culprit this entire time was me misreading measurements. Also, if anyone who’s good at baking would leave any tips for a beginner, that’d be much appreciated!