Remembering taxa; phyum, class, etc.

I'm in a general bio 2 class, and I've had all A grades on my exams so far but a weekly lab quiz has been killing me due to the amount of memorization required since it is fill in the blank. Is there any technique to remembering this mass of names? I'll study my notes intensely, but when the organism slides are shown during the quiz I wind up drawing a blank.

1. Take notes, cover in Bengay
2. Wrap notes around penis
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!

Use mnemonics so that you can relate the names to the pictures easier. Give an example of a name and I might be able to come up with some weird mnemonic for you as an example. Flash cards may also work.

Never taken a bio class in college, but the only time I used flashcards was to memorize the structures and names of the amino acids. The cards helped and when exam time came, I breezed through those questions.

Get a dictionary that shows word origins, such as Merriam-Webster Collegiate.  Things make far more sense when you recognize why things were named what they were named.  Take the alga named Volvox.  Volvox is a spherical colony of cells, and the word derives from Latin volvere, to roll.

Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species

Please Come  Over  For    Gay   Sex

I heard that one once, eight years ago, on TV Funhouse, and it's never left my long term memory.

I started out simply remembering that, and now I have an actual helpful suggestion for you, even though I know nothing of biology.  Dirty mnemonics.  As many of them as you can string together.

Dirty mnemonics.  With suggestive and highly improbable lyrics.

It looks like SNL is good for something after all

>>1
Learn latin.

Seriously.

King Phylum cam over for great sex.

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

King Phylum came over for great sex.

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

>>9

Gah! I keep forgetting there is no delete function.

>>7

Actually it was from the tragically short-lived half-hour program on Comedy Central, and not one of the SNL shorts.  IIRC.

I know how that feels. I'm pretty okay with remembering them though. I just mess up the orders. Put a paper in your pocket with all the names on it and try not to forget about the paper:P Repeat it untill your head falls off. Thats how i did it. Ofcource, cheating is also usefull. :P