I'll tell you in the back there is black wire, that's you ground wire, you take that and put on the battery on the top of the tester there are your hot You place the the positive end of an AA. AAA. C,or D to the hot and place your ground (black wire) to the negative end of battery. In front of tester there are 3 red lights, under the lights is a graph to let you know how much life is in the battery, for instance if there is little life in battery only the first light will glow the greater the life the more lights will glow if a battery has full charge all three lights will shine. To test a 9 volt, you just place the positive and the negative to the corresponding post on top no need to use the ground wire. It is real easy and a must if you have to use alot of batteries.