Which drills are the best

Finding your way around the guitar is daunting. But the best drill I found for removing the fear of shifting up and down the guitar neck is from Troy Stetina's 'speed mechanics' book. I'm a 'fan' of his methods not a promoter of his :-) .

He uses a basic minor pentatonic scale shape see figure below
( in this case its A minor) The larger root note being an 'A' at the 5th fret.

E|-5-|---|---|-8-|---|
B|-5-|---|---|-8-|---|
G|-5-|---|-7-|---|---|
D|-5-|---|-7-|---|---|
A|-5-|---|-7-|---|---|
E|-5-|---|---|-8-|---|

If you shifted up the neck one fret and played
you'd be playing an A# minor pentatonic scale, one fret further to the 7th fret; a B minor pentatonic ..etc

E|-6-|---|---|-9-|---|
B|-6-|---|---|-9-|---|
G|-6-|---|-8-|---|---|
D|-6-|---|-8-|---|---|
A|-6-|---|-8-|---|---|
E|-6-|---|---|-9-|---|

Anyway the 'theory' isn't too important in this case just the 'shape'.
Use this shape to work your way up the neck fret by fret then all the way back down.

It'll only take you a few minutes and your left arm will probably get tired (naturally, stop if it does).

Try to use alternate picking too. This means pluck the string 'down' then 'up' down up down up
It's a great habit to get into. Believe me as a beginner you'll want to pluck every note downwards
persisting with the alternate picking from the start means you wont have to 'unlearn' it and you be able to play faster.

Anyway once you've mastered that - you can go on to hammering on and pulling off your notes with the same drill. I'll try to cover this in the future or take a look on you-tube - there are loads of brilliant clips there for guitar learners and improvers.

Happy 'drilling' and if you've any others to suggest - suggest away !