Watch out for words which may expect you to use the common abbreviations for them in solutions. Doctor' may require MB, MD, DR or MO . You will soon recognise other cunning devices clue-writers use in their efforts to mystify you. Newcomers to cryptic crosswords are recommended to relate solutions back to the clues for them, to see how they were arrived at. Break them up into parts in a bid to identify the key word or words which require definition.
Nothing is ever quite what it seems.
But then that's the whole mentally-stimulating idea.