Just follow the chain rule very closely and you'll be able to do these things after a little effort.
The example of ln(x^2):
The derivitive is the derivitive of the inside multiplied by the derivitive of the function itself. Now, you know the deriv of ln(u) = u, and the derivitive of x^n = nx^(n-1).
So...
d/dx (ln(x^2)) = d/dx(x^2) * d/dx(ln(u)) where u is the quantity x^2
This gives you:
d/dx (ln(x^2)) = 2x/x^2 = 2/x
Now, follow the same set of rules for ln(x)^2, where now x is the quantity of "ln(x)" when doing the simple power rule.
So you get:
d/dx (ln(x)^2)) = (2)(ln(x))(1/x) = 2ln(x)/x
Don't know if that helps or not, but I hope so.