How does leveling work in Elder Scrolls Oblivion?

I play Elder Scrolls Oblivion (I'm new) and I am wondering how the leveling works in the game. Can anyone explain it to me please?How does leveling work in Elder Scrolls Oblivion?
depending on what you picked as your character class - ie a warrior, theif - you have to raise any combination of those listed seven MAJOR skills 10 times to gain 1 level.



for example, if restoration is among those in your major skill set, just cast a healing spell a few times and you'll see that a line will appear and a little noise will echo that shows you've gained a level in restoration.



there are aslo skill books - books that you merely have to read in order to gain a level (please see link below)



there is a catch to leveling up on your own. meaning if you 'cheat' and just cast that restoration spell a million times, there is a down side. unlike many RPG's, the creature's and poeple you must fight in the game level up as you level up. so if you're having trouble fighting a troll, leveling up might not help as he will always be 3 levels higher than you own no matter how many times you raise your level.How does leveling work in Elder Scrolls Oblivion?
There are 21 skills that your character has to use, these skills determine how good you are at certain tasks, like swordsmanship (Blade), sneaking around without being detected (Sneak), or even breaking into things (Security). When you create your character, your class (you can create a custom class) designates 7 of these skills as Major Skills. You level up whenever any combination of these 7 skills are increased a total of 10 times. When you level up, you must sleep in a bed to activate the increase.



When you level up, the following things happen:

Your health increases by 10% of your endurance attribute.

You get to choose 3 attributes to increase. How much the attributes increase depends on how many skills you increased during that level. Each attribute (except Luck) governs 3 skills, for example, Strength governs the skills of Blade, Block, and Hand to Hand. Depending on how many times you increase the skills governed by an attribute, you can increase the attribute 1-5 points, maxing out at 10 increases among the 3 skills. Keep in mind that minor skills as well as major skills contribute to these increases.



Your enemies get stronger as you level up, so don't rush your leveling. You should try and manage your skill increases so you get maximum bang for your leveling buck. To that end, you want to have at least 2 or 3 major skills that you won't use very often, like a school of magic, that way you can control your leveling later on.