Question: When you was at school did you ever struggle with remembering and learning the symbols for equation and symbolic equations? Do you have any tips you could give for a ks3 student in this department?

Monique Henson answered on 11 Nov 2015:

Yep, I still do find it difficult some times. Sometimes I would try to remember some of the steps used to derive or figure out the equation instead, as I would find it easier to do that than memorize it.

Sometimes that’s a bit too complicated. There are lots of different ways to help memorise things – practising is always a good one. If you use an equation lots and lots of times, then you tend you find you remember it better.

You can always try to think of fun ways to remember it too. Sometimes I’d try to think of funny words that stand for each letter in the equation. For example, an equation I used at A-Level a lot was:
PV = NKT
and I could remember it with the phrase “Princess Violet Never Kisses Tomatoes”… I realise that phrase wasn’t really funny or memorable, but you get the idea!