If I understand what you are asking, then yes, there are a fixed number of skill points per level. In the easy cases, a single skill can go up 10 points per level; in more interesting cases a group of skills each has a 10 point per level cap but the group doesn't receive enough skills for the whole group (those are the ones that you can control by locking skill advance or designating the skills to lower in order to raise others.
The best thing to do is take a long look at the skills pages for combat and crafting. Each grouping has the number of yet to be earned skill points and the current allocation to each skill in the group.
http://www.vanguardspheres.com/wiki/Crafting_Skills may help you make sense of it in the crafting sphere (the mechanics in the adventuring sphere are similar, only the names are changed to protect the innocent.