I dunno if students can really afford to pay for someone to teach them how to interpret ABG's, with all the added costs of school such as tuition, books, and Kraft Dinner . So they can try my method which I find works well for me.
Look at the ph and draw an arrow if it is low (meaning acidosis) or high (meaning alkalosis)
Then I look at the PaCO2 and draw an arrow if it is low or high.
If the arrows for ph and PaCO2 move in the opposite direction the problem is respiratory in nature either resp alkalosis or resp acidosis.
Then look at the HCO3 and draw an arrow if it is low or high, if the ph and metabolic arrows go in the same direction, the problem is metabolic in nature either metabolic acidosis or alkalosis.
Compensation is present id PaCO2 arrows are opposite and Partial compensation is present if PaCO2 and HCO3 point to the same direction
ph = 7.35 - 7.45
HCO3 = 22 - 26
PACO2 = 25 - 35
This seems to work well for me.