Place your landform map beside a standard map of a town or a country. Note the differences between the two. Observe that the landform map gives a specific type of information --- it demonstrates features of the landscape rather than just showing you relative area. Think about situations where a landform map might be more useful to you than a standard map.
Check out the scale on your map; it indicates the relationship between the distance of objects on your map and the distance between those same objects on the surface of the Earth. Notice the numbers by the scale which may indicate that every inch --- or some other unit of measurement --- on the map is equivalent to a yard, an acre, a mile or even a thousand miles.
Locate your map's key, which should be labeled as such and consists of labeled pictures representing features of the Earth's surface in the area of your map. Look at the different symbols in your map key that indicate landforms. Notice that the artist's renderings of a valley and a mountain --- or two other dissimilar objects in the key --- are drawn in two dimensions, yet appear to be higher or lower than one another. Observe how this two-dimensional approach to demonstrating relative size, height and distance makes your landform map a useful tool for estimating features of the Earth's surface.
Get used to the two-dimensional approach of showing height and size. Look at your landform map and observe what you know to be high points-hills, mountains, cliffs and other naturally elevated areas, and compare them to areas known to be low-plains, beaches and especially valleys. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the tricks the map's artist has used to demonstrate spatial relationships between landform features.
Locate as many different landforms as possible. Discover how, even though the map is two-dimensional, you can tell what is a higher landform, what is lower, and how far apart they are.