Using Mnemonic Devices To Earn Good Grades

March 28, 2011— -- Samantha Towle spent many days daydreaming and doodling in a notebook during her honors calculus class at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, N.J. Bored, she often wondered, "What use could I possibly have for this class … aside from a nod of approval from my parents?"

Week after week, her strict teacher's lectures went in one ear and out the other, and pretty soon Towle, a senior, had fallen behind in her studies and had no idea what was going on in class.

Towle desperately needed to catch up and find a way to stay mentally engaged during class so she started writing lyrics to her favorite tunes, like the Pokemon theme song and Colors of the Wind, a song from the movie Pocahontas.

And then she sang …

"Constants' derivatives are always zero, graphs have both global and local maximums." Parodying the 90s Disney tune was one technique Towle used to ace honors calculus.

Her high school calculus teacher, Ming Chwan-Chow, said on average he gives out five A's in honors calculus. Towle was one of three students to receive an A in the course.

And now Towle, 18, is a freshman at Ithaca College, where she has been named 'America's Smartest Slacker' by CourseSmart, provider of eTextbooks, and CollegeHumor, a comedy website. This follows a month-long search for students who have mastered the concept of working "smarter, not harder."

From acing Spanish with the help of Sesame Street, to memorizing equations to the beat of fencing-footwork, the America's Smartest Slacker contest garnered over 300 "slacker" stories from students all over the country who wanted to share their quirky, progressive, and sometimes bizarre approaches to learning.