The biggest thing that someone at rating level needs to focus on is tactics. Tactics are a series (or sometimes one) of moves that give you an advantage. Sometimes it is a temporary advantage, and sometimes it is a more permanent advantage ex: gaining material like the queen. Practicing tactics will help you see these in a game so you can achieve advantages, or prevent your opponent from playing them on you. Puzzles on this site are a good way to practice (although you get 5 free a day on the site). Lichess also has a puzzle/tactics training part of their site that is free, and unlimited puzzles. Tactics are the best way to improve your calculation ability in chess. Here is an article on this site that has all the tactics definitions that there are in chess: https://www.chess.com/article/view/chess-tactics (you will only need to focus on pins, skewers, forks/double attacks, and discovered attack. These are the basics tactics, and most of the advanced tactics are based on one or more of those tactics so those are the ones you want to master first)
You will also want to do a blunder check with every move that you play. That will also eliminate most of you dropping pieces. A way to do blunder check is to do some sort of CCT (checks, captures, and traps) after you have decided on the move you are going to make, but before you actually make the move. You first check to see if you make that move if your opponent will have any checks. If so evaluate it to see if there is something to that check or if it can be easily met, and not cause any further complications. If it leads to something, then you should probably not make the move (unless that is still your best move, but then you won't be able to avoid it). If the check does nothing then you can still play the move if you want. Next do the same thing but with captures. To include can the piece just be taken if you move it to the intended square. This will help not drop pieces that you are not moving also. Next check for traps. Look to see if your intended move opens up some sort of tactic or series of moves that leads to dropping pieces or checkmate (this may be multiple moves). If your opponent plays a move that just drops a piece for nothing then you need to here Admiral Ackbar in your head telling you its a trap. Look to see if your opponent is trying to goad you into something. Doing that every move will probably stop you losing your queen or a different piece 90% of the time.
For the opening just focus on learning and applying the principles of the opening. Here is a link to the principles of the opening: https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-principles-of-the-opening. Focusing on the principles, and not dropping pieces in the opening will solve you playing the Botez Gambit a lot.
Here is a link to another article that explains what to study at the beginning level: https://www.chess.com/article/view/after-the-rules-what-should-beginners-study-next.
I’ve been playing chess every day for a little over a month now and it seems like the biggest problem I have at the moment is that I keep on blundering my Queen. I keep on playing and sometimes I’m able to bounce back, but this is definitely something I need to work on.
In the beginning I would try to force Queen trades so that I just wouldn’t have to worry about it at all, but in more recent games I’ve been trying to get rid of my opponents’ Queen while keeping mine and it often leads to disaster lol. How do I do a better job of protecting my Queen while attacking my opponent’s Queen?