Learning the cases

This post is in response to anonymous' comment on this post. I'm assuming my own lack of a grammar foundation here - I was never taught the mechanics of grammar and, in order to learn Polish, I had to learn what the different parts of speech actually do - even down to adverb/adjective... so, I sympathise, anonymous!

My esteemed przyjaciółka, Sam, will be able to help explain more than I can about why the instrumental is used in the particular example you give: 'Marek i Piotr są studentami Politechniki. Są dobrymi przyjaciólmi, chóć kazdy jest inny'

However, this was my strategy for being able to 'spot the case' in an exam I sat last year - it's a very old technique of learning: by rote - but it worked like a dream, so I pass it on in the hope that it might be useful to you, too. 

Print the following documents, which are (arguably) the most important cases and their endings: 

• accusative, genitive, instrumental table
• blank accusative, genitive, instrumental table

Look at the completed table and test your memory of it - then try to write the endings out from memory in the blank tables. I guarantee, you make yourself do this over the course of a week, you'll remember. Good luck!