How to Memorize the Hormones of the Pituitary Gland

The anterior lobe of the pituitary secrets growth hormone.

The biology teacher whose class peeled off choruses of “Kids Party Constantly On Friday, Getting Stoned” may have endangered his high school teaching career, but at least one of his students retains to this day modern biological classification: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Long favored by science and technology students, mnemonic devices aid memory through their memorable and sometimes bawdy narratives. Creating and practicing mnemonics eases the way to pituitary gland hormone memorization.

Things You'll Need

• Index cards

Instructions

Anterior Pituitary Hormones

1. Create a sentence which uses the first letters or, optimally, some part of the first syllable of the hormones that tells a story or invokes a striking image: "Fools Looting Alexandria Grow Horns, Provoking Tears" renders follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) luteinizing hormone (LH), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), growth hormone (GH), prolactin (P), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH).

2. Copy the mnemonic of your choice onto one side of an index card. Write the essential information of each hormone represented in the mnemonic on the other side of the card: it's name, symbol, function, and precursor.

3. Quiz yourself by flashing the mnemonic side of the card and jogging your memory for the initials and names of the hormones referred to. Only look when you can't remember. Practice this way until you can remember all of them without looking.

Tips & Warnings

• Another mnemonic device is a word that forms an acronym of the hormones being memorized. FLAG-TiP renders the six hormones of the anterior lobe of the pituitary.

References

• valuemd.com; Physiology Mnemonics.
• neurosurgery.pitt.edu; What is the Pituitary?
• elp.manchester.edu; Endocrine System.