I would like to start writing a grade tracking application in java.
I would like for the user to be able to enter their grades, save their data, and exit the application. I would like the user’s data to be “remembered” by the application when the user runs it again.
Can someone point me in the right direction on what kind of tools/languages is needed for this kind of data storage?
Yes, for that you’ll need a database. There’s much to learn. Take a good look at something like mySQL or SQLServer. mySQL is free.
You’ll also need to learn some SQL, which is the language used to communicate with the database. Each database has it’s own version of SQL, so check the reference for the database you choose.