Mnemonics

Specific Mnemonics

Historic

Rankings of Generals:

• Brigadier General (1 star), Major General (2 stars), Lieutenant General (3 stars), General (4 or 5 stars)
• Be My Little General

Presidents

1-7:

• Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Quincy Adams, Jackson
• No mnemonic (it's easy to remember the first seven)

8-14:

• Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce
• Very Happy Turtles Prepare Themselves For Piercings
  • (just remember, Tyler came first - before Taylor)
• Very Happy Turtles Pick Themselves For President
  • (this is my original mnemonic, but it doesn't help differentiate between the T's and P's)

15-21:

• Buchannan, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur
• Brave Little Johnny Grabbed Hold of Garfield's Assassin

22-28:

• Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson
• Clever Henry Chooses Mates Ready To Win

29-33:

• Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman
• Harding Comes Home Really Tired

33-42: These are all the post-WW II presidents...

• Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama
• you're on your own with the rest, because I know them all

Geographic

Great Lakes:

• (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Eerie, Superior)
• HOMES

Scientific/Numeric

Colors of the rainbow:

• ROY G. BIV

Order of taxonomy in biology:

• (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
• King Phillip Chose to Order Fish & Got Sick

Roman numerals:

• I=1, V=5, X=10, L=50, C=100, D=500, M=1000
• I Value Xylophones Like Cows Dig Milk

IUPAC prefixes:

• (methyl ethyl butyl pentyl hexyl heptyl octyl nona deca)
• (methane ethane butane pentane hexane heptane octane nonane decane)
• Ma Eats Pot Brownies, Pa Has Hash Only, No Dope

Music

The notes represented by the lines on the treble clef stave (bottom to top):

• (E, G, B, D, F)
• Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

And the notes represented by the spaces between the lines:

• (F, A, C, E)
• Furry Animals Cook Excellently

The notes represented by the lines on the bass clef stave (bottom to top):

• (G, B, D, F, A)
• Good Boys Do Fine, Always

And the notes represented by the spaces between the lines:

• (A, C, E, G)
• All Cows Eat Grass

The order of sharps in music, called the "circle of fifths":

• (F, C, G, D, A, E, B)
• Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.

And in reverse for flat keys the mnemonic can be neatly reversed:

• Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father.

References

• List of phrasal verbs (good for finding multi-letter verb phrases for generating mnemonics): http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/phrasal-verbs/