I know Skritter is good about handling duplicate words in multiple lists but I was just curious how it counts the words you are adding.

For example, I was in the middle of reviewing the HSK 5 word list and got about halfway done before I started school. When I started school I stopped reviewing the HSK 5 word list and switched to a custom list I had built for myself. Now this custom list has several HSK 5 words from the latter half of the HSK word list that I had not previously studied. But when I add words from the custom list (that are also in the HSK 5 list), the HSK 5 word list count does not change.

For example, I have 600 words left to study in the HSK 5 list but I have it inactive so Skritter does not add anymore words from that list. I add words from another list that happens to include duplicates of the words from the remaining 600 in the HSK 5 list. When I add words from this other list, the word count in the HSK 5 list should drop below 600 right? I'm asking this question because for me the number does not change. Any insight would be much appreciated!

i believe the "number of words left in a list" number really means "number of words left to scan through when adding". That number will start updating again when you start adding from the HSK5 list again.

It only updates the count when you hit that word that's already been studied. So if you start studying your HSK 5 list again, it will only decrease your word count once you reach your duplicate words. It only takes the duplicate out of your word count once the program tries to add it to your study list, and if it is a duplicate, the program will skip it and decrease your word count by one. Make sense?