I find that it is helpful to memorize the first 26 elements by number and symbol. These are the elements that we mostly use. If others are needed, I can always open up the periodic table.

The 20 common amino acids appear to be a good thing to use an a-z list for.

non-polar (hydrophobic)
glycine gly
alanine ala
valine val
leucine leu
isoleucine ile
methionnine met
phenelynine phe
tryptophan trp
proline pro

polar (hydophillic)
serine ser
threonine thr
cysteine cys
tyrasine tyr
asparagine asn
glutamine gln

charged - acidic
aspartic acid asp
glutamic acid glu

charged - basic
lyseine - lys
argenine arg
histidine his