How can one remember the function and the anatomy of the cardiac valves?

There are 4 cardiac (from the Greek 'καρδία', meaning 'heart') valves.

Physiology (Function) - The pulmonary and aortic valves prevent the backflow of blood from the pulmonary artery and aorta into the ventricles by closing during cardiac diastole (= from Greek meaning 'expansion' i.e. relaxation and refilling). The reason why there would be backflow of blood during diastole is because the pressure in the arteries at this point exceeds the pressure in the ventricles. The mitral (bicuspid) and the tricuspid valves (together constitute the atriοventricular valves) are located between the atria and the ventricles of the heart (thus their common name), one on each side. Similarly, they prevent the backflow of blood from the ventricles into the atria during ventricular systole (= from Greek meaning 'contraction'). At this point the pressure in the ventricles exceeds the pressure in the atria. Therefore, the overall concept to remember is that valves are there to prevent the unfavourable backflow of blood from a compartment of greater pressure into a compartment of lesser pressure. Backflow is unfavourable as it allows blood to pool into the heart and not be pumped efficiently to other tissues and organs.

Anatomy - The location of the valves is easy to remember using the mnemonic All Patients Trust Me (APTM). As one looks at the heart, starting from the left, the first valve to be found is the Aortic, followed by the Pulmonary, followed by the Tricuspid, followed by the Mitral (APTM). As far as the make-up of the valves in concerned, they consist of 2-3 casps (flaps), which coordinate to close or open the valve. An easy rule to remember is that all valves consist of 3 flaps, apart from the the mitral valve which consists of only 2. A way to remember this is that the mitral valve is also called the bicuspid valve, literally meaning bi = two, caspid= casps.