Finding the degrees of monomials are actually really easy!
Here's how you know:
Some examples:
6y^4 Degree is 4. y to the 4th power.
65pq^3y^2 p is to the power of 1, q is power of 3, y is to the power of 2
so, 1+3+2=6
Degree: 6
18x^2y^5z
Here you see a 2, 5, and 1 because z to the first power is z.
2+5+1=8
Degree:8
--->Remember, this is just the sum of exponents of the variables