These steps help you to understand problems that are too complicated to understand at first glance.
Draw an erasable dot immediately before the first word of the problem statement or reading assignment. Start reading from the dot. Stop when you’ve read just enough words so that you’ve read at most a noun and a verb, a prepositional phrase, or another equivalently small amount of information (roughly 1-7 words). Draw a second erasable dot immediately after the last word you just read.
Methodically scan your drawing(s) and table(s) for features that contradict the words between the dots.
Edit/update one feature of your drawing(s) or table(s) that contradicts the words between the dots.
Did your edit involve adding information from the words between the dots to your drawing(s) or table(s)?
Underline the word(s) and/or symbol(s) between the dots that correspond to the feature you just added to your drawing(s) or table(s).
Methodically scan your drawing(s) and table(s) to check whether all meaning in the words between the dots has been represented somewhere in your drawing(s) and table(s).
Is there information that is in the words between the dots but missing in your drawing(s)/table(s)?
Add a feature to the drawing(s) or table(s) to represent one piece of information not yet represented from the words between the dots.
Lightly underline any portion(s) of the words between the dots that remain to be underlined.
Erase the dot next to the first word between the dots. Start reading from remaining dot. Stop when you’ve read just enough words so that you’ve read at most a noun and a verb, a prepositional phrase, or another equivalently small amount of information (roughly 1-7 words). Draw a new erasable dot immediately after the last word you just read.