so ive been a general for about two years now and honestly the HF privileges are pretty good but theres a few segments i keep getting edged out of, mostly on 20m and 40m during contests when the extra portions are way less crowded. my elmer keeps telling me to just go for it but every time i look at the element 4 question pool i kind of freeze up. like the questions on impedance matching networks and the filter design stuff, that stuff is genuinely confusing to me and i dont have an engineering background at all, just learned things as i went.

is it realistic to study for this without really understanding all the math behind it or do i need to actually sit down and learn the derivations and stuff. i heard some people just memorize the question pool but that feels wrong somehow, like i want to actually understand what im doing when i get on the air. anyone gone through this recently and have thoughts on how long it took them or what resources helped

I went from General to Extra in about four months studying maybe 20-30 minutes a day, and I'll be honest with you — I do not have an engineering degree either. What helped me was HamStudy.org for drilling the question pool but also watching some of W7BRS's videos on YouTube for the theory parts that made no sense just from reading the question. The impedance and reactance stuff clicked for me after I actually drew out a few LC circuits on paper and traced through what was happening, not just memorized the formula.

You dont need to derive Maxwell's equations or anything, but understanding WHY the answer is what it is makes it stick a lot better than just grinding flashcards. The exam itself honestly wasnt as scary as I expected. The extra privileges are nice, especially if you do any CW or want to operate in the quieter parts of the band. Worth doing for sure.

just passed mine last month actually. the filter stuff is annoying but once you get butterworth vs chebyshev into your head its not that deep. the oscillator questions tripped me up more than anything tbh. i used gordon west's book and supplemented with hamstudy. took me like 6 weeks of cramming on lunch breaks

the extra subbands are honestly kinda quiet which is either great or boring depending on what youre trying to do lol