make heads or tails of, guesswork

China’s plans: The Communist Party announced it would roll out steps to “safeguard national security” in Hong Kong. The vague language leaves plenty of guesswork about what may be coming.

Economic forecasting isn't guesswork

Each year, banks, research institutions and other experts in Germany issue
annual forecasts about how they expect the economy to perform. And just
about every year, they end up making some corrections.



Unfortunately, making heads or tails of Google Voice transcripts often requires a lot of guesswork, since the text I receive frequently bears little resemblance to the original message the caller left. I

guesswork

(gĕs'wûrk')
n.

1. The process of making guesses.
2. An estimate or judgment made by guessing.

make heads or tails of

1. To understand: I couldn't make heads or tails of the report.