Look for a gold or silver-colored band on the resistor. Turn the resistor so this band is on the right side when you look at the colored bands from left to right.
Use the mnemonic device "Bright Boys Rave Over Young Girls But Veto Getting Wed." This represents the color-to-digit conversion from zero to nine: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray and white.
Convert the first band to the first digit. For example, if the first band is red, it represents a 2 for the first digit.
Convert the second band to the second digit. For example, a yellow band represents a 5. These two bands, therefore, read 25.
Read the third band as the multiplier. This number represents multiplying the previous two-digit number by the given power of ten. For example, an orange band represents 4, so multiply 24 by 10^4. This gives you 240,000.
Look at the tolerance band, which is gold or silver. A gold tolerance band represents a tolerance rating of 5 percent, and a silver one represents a rating of 10 percent. Assume it has a gold band. This hypothetical resistor has a rating of 240,000 ohms, with a tolerance or variance of 5 percent.