i know this question is kind of trivial but i can’t seem to find an answer anywhere.
are there hot keys for the different mesh selection modes? (vertices, edges, faces)? i hate clicking on the little buttons to change modes.
thanks. 
CTRL TAB 1, 2 or 3
ouch! that’s a little awkward! why couldn’t it be just a single key press, like e, f, b or something similar? anyway thanks man.
Finding suitable hotkeys is always a challenge with Blender, which is so hotkey oriented. For example, E currently used for extrude, F make edge/face, and b is for box select.
See my point? 