My personal opinion, if you want to get better at making music, then do what you think will help you reach that goal. If it takes learning music theory, then go for it. There are other things you can try, most of them have already been suggested in this thread - but the one that's most important in my opinion is listening. I've learned most everything I've learned so far just from listening to music, and trying to recreate the sounds.
Feedback is helpful (extremely helpful, actually), but people aren't going to want to always comment on your music, so listen. Only go for feedback whenever you're happy with what you've got. Then take the criticisms, and go back to listening. Really helps.
Learning music theory and creating original music can help, but it really comes down to how much you care about music and how far you want to take it. If you're just trying to get on OCR, it's (obviously) not required.
Also, ask questions. If you can't figure it out yourself, or google isn't helping, ask questions. No shame in it.
That's all I have to say. Good luck.