I can´t figure out how the Word and Characters Learned statistics work.

I have tree different lists, which include 640 words altogether. I know that I have studied all these words (and no others). In the diagrams in the Progress page the number of word writings learned amount to about 390, and the number of characters are about 530. Still the retention rate is 94,3%.

Is this correct? Can someone explain this result?

If everything you've studied is up to "learned" status, then it means that you have about 390 entries in your lists with multiple characters, or "words", which means that the other 250 entries must be individual characters (or overlap). If your characters are up to 530, you must have a total of 530 characters making up those entries, meaning that some of your characters are reused in words that you've learned.

The retention rate indicates essentially what percentage of reviews you get correct. If you're at 94.3% right now, it's probably time to add new stuff, as you've got most of your current words and characters adequately learned.

Ah, so a "word" has been defined as having more than one character. I am not sure that I would agree on that. But, well. It can be accepted. =)

The retention rate then. I would have hoped that it referred to the number of entries in my lists, but I guess that it is calculated for characters, not "words".

Thank you FatDragon. And yes, I have started to add more entries after those 640. I was just taking a pause after my Chinese test in May...

Another thing: It would be great to have a summary on how well each studied vocabulary list or section has been learned. For example: number of entries in list or section/number of entries learned/number of tones learned/number of pronounciations learned/number of definitions learned. Ex: 100/95/98/76/99. An explanation would be needed of course.

But wait... In the vocabulary section it seems like the entries really are called "words". Which I think is logical, but which is not consistent with the definition in the Progress page?

FatDragon explains it well--thanks!

In the new progress page, you will be able to see different retention rates for characters vs. words in their appropriate sections. It will be good. I'll also be adding tooltips to everything to make it more clear, although you'd still have to read them to figure out the character/word distinction. And yeah, that distinction just applies to progress, not to vocabulary lists, where everything is a word.

It is not trivial to generate reports of how well-learned sections and lists are, but it's something frequently asked for, so we are alert for ideas on how to make it happen.