THE way to get lost when navigating PPL-style is to "positively" identify a feature on the ground, but it's not the right one. With a bit more bad luck, one can repeat the same error 10 miles later. Then one is a bit stuffed.
What I found most helpful when I used to do this was to try to look for unusual features on the ground. The most unusual shapes one can find matching on the map.
People train to look for well known VRPs but a lot of them aren't obvious. The other day I was asked by Cranfield to report at Woburn Abbey and (some of you will take the p1ss here) it was only with the GPS that I found it! The place is just a big church; churches of various sizes are everywhere. Their ILS was busy with trainers and they could see I was able to arrive VFR.
Whereas a strange shaped lake, or a unusual piece of coastline, will give a far more positive ID when matched against the chart. Round or oval lakes are everywhere! Villages are hopeless unless again they are a very odd shape. Same for roads; look for unusual junctions. Just a road is no good; they all look the same.
That said, dead reckoning (timing on a heading) is accurate if one flies the heading accurately.