Quest and Jenny,
Whatever WT that came from is slightly on the flaky side. That info ranges from misleading to outright WRONG.
First, the glaring ERROR: You click on the Zebra picture to turn the grid so that the
notch in one edge points in the indicated direction.
To read the combo, read each line from left to right from the top down (like reading a page). The letters and numbers will alternate and you should have 3 letter-number pairs with the letters alternating (LRL or RLR).
You can try the numbers in different orders if you have lots of time to kill. Doing them in the order read and in the indicated direction is the correct way.
That WT is correct in the part that says that you don't need to turn past any numbers; stop on each number as soon as you come to it. It is also correct in saying that if one combination isn't working for you, you can leave and come back to get a different combo. However, there is nothing magical about N or S directions.
Hope this helps clear thing up.
Good luck!