It may seem confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it! I had never seen DS questions in my life before starting to prep for the GMAT either.
As you've noticed, you're given two statements. Your job is to determine whether the info in these statements is enough to answer the question in the stem.
You'll be given 5 options:
A. the first statement is sufficient to answer the question in the stem
B. the second statement is sufficient to answer the question in the stem
C. only if you put both statements together will you be able to answer the question in the stem
D. either statement by itself is enough
E. you can't answer the stem without further info.
There are several steps to be considered when answering a DS question:
1. You analyze the info in statement 1 and try to figure out if it's enough to answer the question. Mind you, you're not even supposed to look at statement 2 in this stage! Whatever the results, you'll have an AD versus BCE split. That is to say:
a. if 1 is sufficient, then you have two answers to choose from: it's either A (if 2 is not sufficient) or D (if either statement BY ITSELF is enough).
b. if 1 is insufficient, you'll cross off the list A and D
2. You analyze statement 2, BUT WITHOUT THINKING OF STATEMENT 1. You just need "to momentarily forget" about 1! This is very important, since if you don't break off from statement 1, your reasoning might be affected. So you carefully check whether the info in 2 is enough to answer the question. Depending on the results in step 1, you get several cases:
a. 1 and 2 are sufficient INDEPENDENTLY, which means that you can safely pick answer D
b. 1 is sufficient, but 2 is not, so you pick option A
c. 2 is sufficient, but 1 is not, so pick answer B
3. If you're not in one of the above cases, then you need to analyze the two questions TOGETHER. This is the only instance when you consider the info combined! DO NOT DO SO OTHERWISE! If combining the "powers" of 1 and 2 yields the answer, then you'll pick C. If you believe that you still need more info to be able to answer the question, then pick E.
Hope this makes sense to you...
