As midterms approach, that one math test is approaching. Yes, the one that has seven formulas to go with it. How are you ever going to remember all of the formulas without mixing them up?

Here’s a recommendation I made to a student regarding a silly, quick way to memorize math formulas! Check it out and let me know if there is a clever trick that works for you!

Don’t have time for the full video? No worries, I’ve got your back with this short summary:

While many teachers nowadays allow students to have little flashcards or cheat sheets with their math formulas on them, there are still plenty that don’t. So in the case that you need to memorize your math formulas, I recommend finding some silly anti-boring methods for how to get these formulas into your brain. My client Sam and I were doing just this today. He needed to memorize the formula for compound interest which is A=P(1+r/n)^nt. Now our brains work very well with narrative and imagery so as I was looking at this formula I came up with a story.

First I noticed that A=P made me think of “ape” so that’s the start of our story. Next, the parenthesis reminds me of a couple of bananas. So the story goes, “Once upon a time there was an A=P, and that ape really wanted some bananas (). So he started by picking 1 banana, but something scared him so he ran off (+r/n), so he did not (^nt) get any more bananas.” After we came up with this little story for remembering the formula, I quizzed Sam on the formula verbally and in writing, so we were using all the study senses, and he got it down pat. Afterward, I recommend to his family, that they spend some time coming up with stories for the other formulas he needed to study.

I hope that this tip helped you, and if you have a silly method for memorizing math formulas let me know down in the comments. And if you want more tips on how to study in silly anti-boring ways please consider checking out my course.