Do Vocabulary Words Sink In?

Some words are easier to remember than others, maybe because they sound like another word that provides a natural pneumonic or because they seem unusually mellifluous. If a word is below your difficulty threshold, then it takes very few repetitions to sink in. And if above, more repetitions won't help. This is reminding me of an old post i wrote about why test scores plateau. Why do test scores plateau? It looked at student doctors who took a test in their first, second, third, fourth and fifth years of residency. The surgeons did much better in their second compared to their first year,. A little better in their third compared to their second year, and then platead