for myself with 上げる and 上がる, it wasn’t the best mnemonic, but I thought how both terms have 2 "a"s in them in total, where 上がる has both of them be in the reading, while 上げる has one be in the reading, and the other in the meaning, “to raise”
Yeah, Yes, I guess it’s normal to go a little worse in vocab, I hope 
. I found useful the “a”/“e” rule they told you below, but I think it is not 100% reliable according to this: Japanese Transitive and Intransitive Verbs (and How to Use Them)
I always tell apart these two by the vowels: the -i- in rise sounds like the vowel in が, and the -ai- in raise sounds like the vowel in が.
And this is not about verbs, but I read about another useful tip the other day, about reading 月 as がつ or げつ. If you are counting, (e.g. 四月) you should use がつ, if you are not (今月), you should use げつ. Hope it helps!
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kanji+aru is always intransitive, AFAIK. Kanji+eru is transitive assuming that kanji-aru exists. kanji+reru as intransitive seems to occur when the transitive counterpart is kanji+ru.
E.g. 上がる (intr.) あげる(tr.)
but 売る(tr.) 売れる (intr.). As long as you keep your eyes peeled when you see -reru, you should be safe with what I said.
There are several sets of these transitive-intransitive pairs. Another common one is -su (tr.) and -ru (intr.) as in 写す／写る. “R” is also further back in the mouth, kind like “a” was.
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This is the mnemonic that stuck with me. I had 100% accuracy with this when doing my KameSame reviews just now. ありがとう!
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