Having just finished adding (still reviewing/learning!) HSK 1 through 3, I noticed that I have 618 characters and 348 words added. Assuming Wikipedia is correct: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanyu_Shuiping_Kaoshi , there are a total of 623 characters and 600 words in HSK 3. Is there some difference between how words are being counted, or is there actually a large discrepancy?

On another note, is there a way to make the character writing stay put in iOS when I double tap the screen, instead of having it fade away once I start writing?

We only count "words" as multi-character words, where I think the count of 600 must include single characters when they are listed as words on their own.

You can't make the phantom stay when you start writing because we found that when it stays, and you're just tracing, it's terrifyingly bad for memory. It works much better to try to write from memory, even if it's just for a few strokes a few seconds after you saw it.

I see. I figured as much about the tracing.