Reflective Mental Overseer Questions:
- What physical quantities' values are requested in the problem ?
- How do I turn the information requested into a mathematical statement ?
- How will I label the unknowns requested ?

- Place a question mark after each to indicate that its value is requested.
Examples:   v_f = ?,  t₂ = ?,  KE_top = ?

- When applicable, place the unknowns ("symbol" = ?) on the sketch of the process at the appropriate location.
Example:
A car traveling at 60.0 km/hr brakes to a halt in 140 m at a uniform rate.
  (A) What was the car's acceleration while braking ?
  (B) How long did it take the car to come to a stop ?

- The symbols with which you tag an unknown may be personal to you. In that case you will need to link your personal symbols with those used in the equations in the textbook or class notes, the generic equations.

- When examining an equation there is no way for you to see which symbols are knowns and which are unknowns. It takes practice to mentally keep track of those symbols that just represent some number, the knowns, and those symbols which are important to focus on, the unknowns.

- It often helps to restate the problem in terms of the symbols you have chosen for the givens and the unknowns. In the example problems in Physics^Net, you will see this done at the beginning of each example problem solution. For example: "Find F_app given a_b = 4.00 m/s² and m_b = 3.00 kg." is equivalent to "If a 3.00 kg block is accelerated at a uniform acceleration of 4.00 m/s² on a frictionless surface, what force must be applied to the block ?"