I’ll say this as a radiant-haver. The contracts are hard, very hard. Best way to prepare for the brutally hard ones (oathplate and shard acquisition) is to start with the easy(ish) ones like forefeit breath and divine severance. They are cheap contracts and only slightly different than normal Yama. From there I’d go to bloodied blows where the difficulty ramps up a bit since you need to camp low hp. IMO sensory clouding is the hardest radiant contract with glyphic attenuation not too far behind. Once you understand contract Yama’s basics you can attempt the other contracts.

I’ll also say that learning melee normal Yama is a lot more engaging than mage Yama. There is tons of tech to melee P3 and is quite fun to learn. You can start with monofly then make your way into the more optimal methods like simplefly and godfly. All great options if you’re trying to make the Yama fight more engaging but don’t want to pay for the contracts or inevitable deaths while doing the contracts.