okay so ive been wanting to get my technician license for a while now and i finally decided to just do it but honestly i dont even know where to begin. a buddy of mine said just memorize the question pool but that seems like a lot and i feel like id forget it all by test day anyway. is there like a specific study guide people actually recommend or do most folks just use those practice test websites? i downloaded the arrl handbook from somewhere but it seems way too advanced for what i need right now. also how long did it take you guys to feel ready, like are we talking a few days or more like a month of studying

honestly the question pool memorization approach isnt as crazy as it sounds for the tech exam. the pool is only like 400 something questions and the actual test pulls from those exact questions word for word, so if you can get like 80% on the practice tests consistently you're probably fine. hamstudy.org is what most people use these days, it tracks which questions you're weak on and kind of focuses your studying there. i wouldnt bother with the handbook at all for this, thats overkill. took me maybe 2 weeks of doing 20-30 questions a night before i felt solid. the electrical and RF sections trip up a lot of new folks so maybe spend a little extra time there if the formulas make your eyes glaze over

i just passed mine last month so this is pretty fresh for me. i used the gordon west study book which a lot of people at my local club swear by, it goes through each question and explains the why behind the answer which helped me actually retain stuff instead of just guessing. that said i also did a ton of practice tests on hamstudy closer to the exam. took me about three weeks but i was only doing maybe 30 mins a day so you could probably do it faster if you really committed. dont stress too much the test really isnt that bad