| 100% | SORTINGOUT | 10 | Trying to make sense of |
| 100% | SORTOUT | 7 | Try to make sense of |
| 68% | PIGOUT | 6 | Ingurgitate, and a hint to making sense of the starred clues |
| 67% | AGO | 3 | "Let's try to make ___ of it" |
| 67% | RAINOUT | 7 | Ballpark bummer, and a hint to making sense of the starred answers |
| 66% | IRONCLAD | 8 | Unbreakable, and a hint to making sense of seven answers in this puzzle |
| 66% | ANDCUT | 6 | Director's call, plus a hint to making sense of eight Across answers |
| 65% | DISAPPEARINGINK | 15 | Medium for secret messages, and a hint to making sense of 12 Down answers |
| 64% | DEBUG | 5 | Work on software, and work to make sense of the answers to the starred clues? |
| 64% | BAA | 3 | Lamb's sound ... which must be "silenced" to make sense of the starred clues' answers |
| 64% | COUP | 4 | Overthrow, or, if reparsed, a hint to making sense of four pairs of Across answers |
| 64% | GETBENTOUTOFSHA | 15 | Blow a gasket, and a clue to making sense of some answers in this puzzle |
| 64% | CRISES | 6 | Dire situations, and, if reparsed, a clue to making sense of six pairs of Across answers |
| 63% | FLOWER | 6 | Garden sight, and, if reparsed, a hint to making sense of 10 answers in this puzzle |
| 63% | RINGSIDE | 8 | Choice seating at a boxing match, and a hint to making sense of the peripheral answers |
| 63% | AGENT | 5 | One who might try to make a big deal out of everything |
| 62% | REHAB | 5 | "They tried to make me go to ___ ..." (start of an Amy Winehouse song) |
| 62% | TRIMTHETREE | 11 | Decorate for Christmas, in a way, and how to make sense of the answer to each starred clue? |
| 62% | TAKEALETTER | 11 | Dictator's order, and how to make sense of the answers to the starred clues, in two ways |
| 62% | CONNECTSTHEDOTS | 15 | Makes sense of a situation ... and, literally, what the quartet of answers to starred clues does |
| 61% | CITATION | 8 | With 62-Across, Wikipedia tag on unsourced statements... or what's required to make sense of the starred clues |
| 61% | SENSE | 5 | What to try to make of this puzzle? |
| 60% | CIRCLESBACK | 11 | Brings up a prior topic … or a hint to making sense of the answers to this puzzle's starred clues |
| 57% | DECODE | 6 | Make sense of |
| 57% | SORTOUT | 7 | Make sense of |
| 57% | PROCESS | 7 | Make sense of |
| 57% | CONSTRUE | 8 | Make sense of |
| 57% | INTERPRET | 9 | Make sense of |
| 57% | DECIPHER | 8 | Make sense of |
| 57% | PARSE | 5 | Make sense of |