I never really spent too much time trying to figure out how to cheat. Instead I would figure out mnemonics to remember stuff. The best was the resistor color code that I got from one of our ex-Navy lab techs at University.

Bad = Black = 0

Boys = Brown = 1

Rape = Red = 2

Our = Orange = 3

Young = Yellow = 4

Girls = Green = 5

But = Blue = 6

Virgins = Violet = 7

Go = Grey = 8

Without = White = 9

There's also one to remember the order of the streets in downtown Seattle but I can't remember that one yet.