I've recently had success with using "test patterns" in software testing. A test pattern is probably familiar to you from other manufacturing processes. Your local TV station broadcasts one in the middle of the night. The box of cereal you eat every morning has a few coloured squares printed next to each other to check the alignment of the various colours used in printing.
Test patterns in software work using the same principle - it is easier for a human being to remember and recognise a pattern than a set of details. As an example, when asked to enter a budget amount for each month, I entered the numbers 1 through 12 sequentially. Wherever else this data was accessed, I could immediately check the pattern, instead of the individual values, to ensure that everything was working correctly.
I find this sort of testing to be more effective than the usual approach of hammering in "random" values on the keyboard and then saying "this looks right" or of entering "realistic" values which may not have a unique entry for each field. A human tester can easily recognise off-by-one errors and the like by noticing that a pattern is incorrect.
Other examples include picking dates that increment by one year, using paragraphs of text beginning with sequential letters or creating graphical patterns using multiple radio buttons or checkboxes.
Update: A few other test patterns I find useful:
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HTML / SQL Server / JScript
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