How to memorize the presidents in order
The prettysmart teamUpdated 5 min readthe short answer
Learn the 47 presidencies in 6 chunks, one a day, each with a sentence whose first letters spell it. Then write every chunk so far from memory instead of rereading it: about 15 minutes a day for a week.
Key takeaways
- Washington And Jefferson Made Many A Joke gives presidents 1 to 7: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson.
- Hang each chunk on the year it starts: 1789, 1837, 1861, 1889, 1923 and 1977.
- Learn the repeated surnames as pairs: 2 Adamses, 2 Harrisons, 2 Johnsons, 2 Roosevelts and 2 Bushes.
In this guide
All 47 presidencies in order
47 numbers, 45 people: Grover Cleveland and Donald J. Trump each served two terms that weren’t back to back, so each has two numbers.
| # | President | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Washington | 1789–1797 |
| 2 | John Adams | 1797–1801 |
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 1801–1809 |
| 4 | James Madison | 1809–1817 |
| 5 | James Monroe | 1817–1825 |
| 6 | John Quincy Adams | 1825–1829 |
| 7 | Andrew Jackson | 1829–1837 |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | 1837–1841 |
| 9 | William Henry Harrison | 1841 |
| 10 | John Tyler | 1841–1845 |
| 11 | James K. Polk | 1845–1849 |
| 12 | Zachary Taylor | 1849–1850 |
| 13 | Millard Fillmore | 1850–1853 |
| 14 | Franklin Pierce | 1853–1857 |
| 15 | James Buchanan | 1857–1861 |
| 16 | Abraham Lincoln | 1861–1865 |
| 17 | Andrew Johnson | 1865–1869 |
| 18 | Ulysses S. Grant | 1869–1877 |
| 19 | Rutherford B. Hayes | 1877–1881 |
| 20 | James A. Garfield | 1881 |
| 21 | Chester A. Arthur | 1881–1885 |
| 22 | Grover Cleveland | 1885–1889 |
| 23 | Benjamin Harrison | 1889–1893 |
| 24 | Grover Cleveland | 1893–1897 |
| 25 | William McKinley | 1897–1901 |
| 26 | Theodore Roosevelt | 1901–1909 |
| 27 | William Howard Taft | 1909–1913 |
| 28 | Woodrow Wilson | 1913–1921 |
| 29 | Warren G. Harding | 1921–1923 |
| 30 | Calvin Coolidge | 1923–1929 |
| 31 | Herbert Hoover | 1929–1933 |
| 32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1933–1945 |
| 33 | Harry S. Truman | 1945–1953 |
| 34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1953–1961 |
| 35 | John F. Kennedy | 1961–1963 |
| 36 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963–1969 |
| 37 | Richard M. Nixon | 1969–1974 |
| 38 | Gerald R. Ford | 1974–1977 |
| 39 | Jimmy Carter | 1977–1981 |
| 40 | Ronald Reagan | 1981–1989 |
| 41 | George H. W. Bush | 1989–1993 |
| 42 | Bill Clinton | 1993–2001 |
| 43 | George W. Bush | 2001–2009 |
| 44 | Barack Obama | 2009–2017 |
| 45 | Donald J. Trump | 2017–2021 |
| 46 | Joe Biden | 2021–2025 |
| 47 | Donald J. Trump | 2025– |
Watch out: A song or list made before 2025 stops at the 44th, 45th or 46th. Check that yours ends with the 47th.
6 chunks, 6 sentences
47 names at once is too many; 7 to 9 at a time is not. Here is the whole order as first letters, one row per chunk:
Each sentence’s first letters are its chunk’s row:
- 1789, presidents 1–7: Washington And Jefferson Made Many A Joke
- 1837, 8–15: Very Hungry Tigers Prowl Through Fields, Pouncing Boldly
- 1861, 16–22: Lazy Jack Grew Huge Green Apples Cheaply
- 1889, 23–29: Have Coffee, Make Room To Wake Happily
- 1923, 30–38: Cool Heads Rarely Tremble; Every Kid Just Needs Fun
- 1977, 39–47: none needed, just the shape: Carter, Reagan, Bush–Clinton–Bush, Obama, Trump–Biden–Trump
Tyler before Taylor: the shorter name comes first, with Polk between them.
Use the years: asked who was president in 1850, you know it’s the 1837 row, so there are only 8 names to search.
The 5 name pairs that cost points
- John Adams (2nd) and John Quincy Adams (6th): father and son; the son has the middle name.
- William Henry Harrison (9th) and Benjamin Harrison (23rd): grandfather and grandson; William Henry fell ill within a month and served only in 1841.
- Andrew Johnson (17th) and Lyndon B. Johnson (36th): both took over after an assassination, Lincoln’s in 1865 and Kennedy’s in 1963.
- Theodore Roosevelt (26th) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd): fifth cousins; Franklin is the one elected 4 times, from 1932.
- George H. W. Bush (41st) and George W. Bush (43rd): father and son, with Clinton between them.
A 7-day plan
Spread it over a week: the same time split across days sticks better than one long session (Cepeda et al., 2006; Dunlosky et al., 2013).
| Day | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Chunk 1. Write 1–7 from memory 3 times |
| 2 | Chunk 2. Write 1–15 |
| 3 | Chunk 3. Write 1–22, then the years 1789, 1837 and 1861 |
| 4 | Chunk 4. Write 1–29 |
| 5 | Chunk 5. Write 1–38, then test yourself on the deck |
| 6 | Chunk 6 and the 5 pairs. Write all 47 on a blank page |
| 7 | The whole deck, then say all 47 out loud |
Test tomorrow? Learn the 6 sentences tonight, write the list from memory twice, sleep, and write it once more in the morning. The order will hold; the middle numbers will be shakier.
Test yourself instead of rereading: 8 of the deck’s 101 cards are below, and the whole deck goes into prettysmart with one code.
For APUSH, place each chunk by its years: the APUSH study guide has every unit’s dates and exam weight. The same chunk-and-review method works for the periodic table and for the 27 amendments.
Flashcards: US presidents in order: all 47 presidencies, by number and by name
8 of the 101 cards, each checked against this guide's sources. Tap a card to see the answer.
1Who was the 12th president of the United States?
2Who was the 21st president of the United States?
3Who was the 23rd president of the United States?
4What number president was James K. Polk?
5What number president was Rutherford B. Hayes?
6What number president was Woodrow Wilson?
7How are the two Roosevelts related?
8What do the two Johnsons have in common?
Questions people ask
Is there a song for the presidents in order?
Yes, several. The White House Historical Association hosts "The American Presidents", a song Genevieve Ryan Bellaire made up while memorizing the order. A song carries the order well; the deck's number cards do the numbers.
Do I need to know the presidents for APUSH?
APUSH questions are about periods, events and arguments, and every unit is defined by its years (Unit 7 is 1890 to 1945, for example). Knowing which presidents fall in each unit lets you place a document or event in time, which is what the exam asks you to do.
Sources
- The Presidents Timeline, White House Historical Association
- Presidents, The White House (archived, 2021–2025)
- Donald J. Trump, 45th & 47th President of the United States, The White House
- AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description, effective fall 2026, College Board
- Distributed Practice in Verbal Recall Tasks (Cepeda et al., 2006), Psychological Bulletin
- Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques (Dunlosky et al., 2013), Psychological Science in the Public Interest