When I began playing DDR on a pad/arcade, I played beginner, and was bored to tears. Played a couple rounds of light, and did OK (bad timing, but decent combo and overall score considering I was just beginning) and managed to pass MAX 300 Light after like, a grand total of maybe 10 rounds on it spread over a long time. (I think I played twice on the machine that I passed MAX 300 on, and a number of other times before that, but nothing close to recent even back then)
It's pretty easy to get the hang of, if you don't stand in the middle of the pad, like the retarded beginner dancer does. If you do, you're pretty much bound to fail anything beyond, oh, beginner?