I was a Star Trek fan growing up, and I followed up some of the many classical allusions, which were often to Shakespeare, for instance ST episodes such as “The Conscience of the King.” Another was “Dagger of the Mind,” which draws its title from Macbeth. So I memorized the passage, “Is this a dagger before me, handle toward my hand…Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feel as to touch etc.”

Well, I had a college philosophy class on Imagination. One day, the professor referenced this Macbeth passage, asking if anyone knew it, at which I quoted it. The reaction: the prof didn’t trust me and proceeded to look it up and read it himself.

I.e, your mileage may vary.

I make 9th graders memorize the perfect squares up through 400. Sounds mean, but I give them candy for doing it, and it helps make simplifying radicals easier.

I also use the trick above (x + y)^2 = x^2 + 2xy + y^2 for squaring 2-digit numbers all the time…it’s not hard if you practice a little and looks very impressive!