Oh just take an afternoon and memorize them already. Unlike organic side chain pKa's and coulomb's law, amino acids really will follow you around for the next few years of your career, and each time you will be assured that "you don't need to memorize the amino acids, you just need to be familiar with their properties". In another words, you should just memorize them.
It only takes a day. Go to wikipedia, and look up the page for each individual amino acid. Each one has a unique story. Put each one on an index card, with the drawing of the molecule on the front. On the back write down all the information that seems interesting to you. Name. Abbreviation. Class (acid, neutral, polar, etc). But especially all the interesting little dirt on each one.
Glycine is not chiral. That's neat.
Threonine has a chiral side chain. That's neat. Isoleucine is too. They probably have secret chiral meetings once a month after school.
Valine is shaped like a "V". That's neat. He's a branched chain, like his brothers Leucine and Isoleucine. Isn't it weird that the side chain for Leucine is "iso" but the side chain for Isoleucine is not "iso"? Whoever named those two was smoking crack!
Serine is the smallest alcoholic group. So he's like an underage drinker.
Tyrosine looks like a tire. He's an aromatic, so he probably smells bad like his cousin Phenylalanine. He's also an alcoholic, so he probably taught little Serine how to drink. Tyrosine is a smelly drunk with a fat tire around his middle.
Asparagine really was named after asparagus!
etc.
If you approach the amino acids as a dysfunctional family of misfits gathered around the thanksgiving dinner table, they are actually quite amusing, and pretty quick to memorize once and for all.
