Learn the symbols. The lines on a schematic are easy: They represent wires, but the symbols usually do not look like the components they represent. Most electronic components are canisters with wires sticking out, and none of the circuit diagram symbols look like canisters. Many of the symbols suggest what the components do instead of what they look like. The symbols must be learned one at a time.
Learn the basic universal symbols first, as these are the symbols that appear on most electric circuit diagrams. The battery symbol is a series of parallel alternating short and longer lines. The line that connects to one of the short parallel lines represents a wire that connects to the negative terminal of the battery. Resistors are represented by a short zigzag line (representing the fact that they impede movement). Capacitors are represented by two parallel lines (sometimes one of them is curved) that are perpendicular to the wire. Coils are represented by a series of loops. Grounds are represented by a series of parallel lines that get shorter and shorter.
Learn the symbols for the particular kind of electronics you will be dealing with. If you only deal with direct current (DC) electronics, you may never see the symbol for a transformer (two or more coils very near each other), but if you are going to be working with power supplies, you will probably see one in every diagram. Computer scientists see different symbols (like logic gates and half-adders) than someone who works with audio circuits (microphones and loudspeakers), but both will see the symbols for transistors.