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There are tons of methods I use. For anything spatial, hands-on is a must for me. Generally hands-on with expert examples will help me through almost anything. I tend to question myself the first time I try something new (say a new calc equation)... but if someone is there to tell me I did it right, or show me what I did wrong, by the second or third time at the latest I understand it. Also, for me UNDERSTANDING is what it's all about. I can memorize an equation for a test... but for it to stick I have to understand what it does and why. If I don't, I'll forget it within weeks of not using it.
Acronyms are huge... FIFO, ROY G BIV, SOH CAH TOA, and so on...
Some things are aided by subliminal learning. I excelled VERY well in German. I credit part of it to listening to modern german music while I slept. I very quickly found myself better able to comprehend spoken german and speak for like a native. I'm about to start trying the same with Chinese and Japanese. We'll see...
Flash cards are great for many topics... but retention will only be as good as your initial effort. Again, flashing a few rounds before a test will be great for that test, but unless you do it every couple of days for 3 or 4 sessions, you probably won't remember it for long. A lot of that is due to the way your brain transfers short term memories to long term and the protein(?) activitity level. Lots of interesting articles about that part in SciAm over the past couple of years.
At any rate, everyone learns a little different, and most people find that different topics require different techniques. Outside of SOH CAH TOA, I can't think of any acronyms that help much in math (for me). Equations are usually raw memory in my case, and doing problem after problem after problem for a few days until it "sticks".
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