Learn how key English words and phrases can be automatically translated into equations. For example: "Albert has 10 more marbles than Betty" becomes A = B + 10. "Don has 10 less than three times as many geckos as Eric" becomes D = 3E - 10. Learning how to translate English terms such as "less than" to minus and "greater than" to plus makes story problems a lot easier. To learn how to do this translation, look at several examples, paying attention to the way English phrases are converted into equations.
Learn to recognize when certain equations automatically suggest themselves in story problems. For example, stories about cars leaving the same town going in two different directions, automatically suggest the equation: distance = rate X time. This will be the central equation used in solving the problem. Similarly, when experienced solvers hear a story that begins "Tim can paint a room in 4 hours, and Jim can paint the same room in ...," they think of the following formula: 1/together = 1/one + 1/other, which is the equation associated with two people working together. To resolve story problems you must learn to make these automatic associations.
Familiarize yourself with the techniques associated with some types of story problems. For example, problems concerning age often have two equations in which one of them is in the past or in the future. For these problems, statements about the present will involve variables like X and Y. Statement about ages 5 years in the past or 5 years in the future will involve modifications such as X -5 or X + 5.