Now redraw the image without the names of the groups. You should now have an image on your own paper showing the 5 amino acid groups. You will be able to add some life to it shortly.ģ. Don’t worry about the image being dull and boring right now. The 5 pieces of the image represent the 5 classes of amino acid R groups.The image is made of simple geometric shapes(squares, circles) for people who are not artistically oriented. On a piece of paper you must draw the image I designed to memorize the 20 common amino acids. This is the reason why 1 letter codes are not always easy to figure out. Notice that the letters G, A, L, and T are the first letter in more than one amino acid. Familiarize yourself with the names of the 20 common amino Acids using the image below, but don’t spend too much time trying to recall all 2o amino acids right now. Learning the Amino Acids Names and 1 Letter Codesġ. I have tested this method out on a few friends and after going through the method 1 time, on average, they could recall the amino acid name, their 1 letter code, and what group they belong to for all the common amino acids.īesides the solid recall rate, this method allows you to achieve repetition in an entertaining way instead of memorizing a bunch of words with flash cards. The only limitation to this technique is the extent of your ability to draw a somewhat simple image and be able to recall that image on demand. The Hanging Ninja method is a visual recall technique I created while trying to memorize the 20 amino acids, their 1 letter codes, and which group they belong to.