I'm with Dave DGP. We have a multitude of exposure options and modes, and they all have their very valuable uses, but in reality what I invariably use to determine final exposure is blinkies (highlight over-exposure warning that flashes black/white on the LCD image). It's all you need, and mostly it's all that I use. It is the most reliable guide to what you've
actually got on the sensor, very easy to read in an instant, and once you get to know where the limits of your particular camera and processing regime lie (with a couple of simple tests*) it is extremely accurate and a lot more reliable than anything else.
Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure book was originally written for film and even the latest edition is very poor on digital. Blinkies and the histogram are gifts from the Gods of Exposure, yet he dismisses them in a single sentence! And then tells everyone to set white balance to Shade so all our pictures come out nice and warm looking
*Blinkies show what parts of the image are either over-exposed (blown and unrecoverable) or are
on the brink of blowing. In practise, if you shoot Raw, most cameras will have at least one stop of headroom above the point where blinkies just begin to flash, and for optimum exposure and dynamic range it's important to know just how much headroom there is. Bear in mind that blinkies (and the histogram) are generated off a JPEG processed in-camera and the camera settings (Picture Styles in Canon parlance) have some influence on that, mainly the Contrast value, so it's best to stick to one Picture Style.
Take a picture and adjust exposure until blinkies are just flashing over some areas, note those areas, then reduce exposure by 1/3rd stop. Now take a series of pictures keeping the framing identical (tripod is good) increasing exposure by 1/3rd stop each time, say half a dozen images. In post-processing, check which image first shows as actually blown in those areas and now you know where you are
Edit: sorry to go on, but if you use blinkies in this way, then you will almost always find that that there is some small area of the image that shows as blown - maybe a bit of sky, or specula highlights (reflections of the light source/sun). This is unavoidable, no matter what exposure setting method you use, so you have to make a decision, a judgement call. If these areas are important, such as bright reflections off someone's face and forehead, then adjust exposure to stop them blinking. But if they're not important, say a few bright reflections off white paintwork, then let them blow.