I’d like to give a shout out to Ray Nicholus’s terrific set of blog posts:
He does a point by point comparison of JavaScript and jQuery, covering topics like selectors, manipulating the DOM, XHR, and event handling.
What emerges from the analysis is that in most cases, jQuery saves a bit of typing but doesn’t actually simplify your code. In some cases, such as XMLHttpRequests, the native web API can actually be simpler and more intuitive that the jQ alternative.
Anyway, the point of the posts is not really to knock jQuery, but to teach you the difference between JS and jQ so you can make intelligent decisions about the tools you use.
If, like me, you use a lot of jQuery and worry that it might be stopping you getting a deeper understanding of vanilla JavaScript, then these blog posts are highly recommended. They are also a very good way to consolidate your knowledge - and maybe pick up a few new tricks.