Know the meaning of basic terms. Positive slope refers to a line that goes up from left to right on a graph. Negative slope refers to a line that goes down as you move left to right.

Understand and memorize the definition, or formula, of slope. When given two points with coordinates, the formula for the slope of the line containing those two points is m = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1). The first given coordinate is (x1,y1) and the second given coordinate is (x2, y2).

Evaluate the two given points and plug them into the slope formula. For example, if the given coordinates are K (2, 6) and N (4, 5), the formula will look like m = (5 - 6) / (4 - 2).

Simply and calculate values in parenthesis. For example, (5 - 6) = -1 and (4 - 2) = 2.

Plug the new values back into the slope formula. This value is the slope. For the example, it's -1/2. Therefore, the slope of the line equals -1/2 or 0.5.

Evaluate the value of the line's slope and determine whether the line has a negative or positive slope. For example, a line with a slope of -1/2 has a negative slope. Thus, you can visualize the line on a graph moving down as it moves left to right.

Practice solving for slope with other examples until you have fully grasped the concept of slope and its formula.