so ive been a Tech for about 8 months now and mostly just been doing VHF/UHF stuff on my local repeaters and some simplex. its been fun but honestly im getting a little bored and everyone keeps telling me i need to get my General so i can actually get on HF. my question is how hard is the General exam compared to Tech? i remember the Tech exam being easier than i expected but i heard General has a lot more electrical theory and i was never great at math in school. im using the HamStudy website to practice and some of the questions about impedance and like reactance and stuff are going over my head. is that stuff actually going to matter when im operating or is it just for the test? also what bands do you even get access to as a General that you dont have as a Tech, i know you get some HF but im not totally sure which ones

honestly the General isn't that bad if you just grind through the question pool. i was in the same boat, not a math guy at all, and the way i handled the theory questions was just memorize the answers without fully understanding them. not the most educational approach i know but it got me through. the actual operating is where you start to pick it up anyway. as for bands you get a big chunk of 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m among others, enough to keep you busy for years. 40m at night is where i'd start honestly, you can work stations all over the place even with a modest antenna. just keep doing HamStudy every day for like 2-3 weeks and you'll be fine

yeah what the other guy said about HamStudy is right, that site is great. i'll add though that if you actually want to understand the impedance and reactance stuff rather than just memorize it, the ARRL General Class License Manual isn't bad. some people find it dry but it helped me connect the dots on why certain things work the way they do. it does matter a little bit in practice, like when you're trying to figure out why your antenna tuner isnt happy or whatever. but you dont need to be an engineer to pass the test or even to be a decent operator. the exam itself is 35 questions and you need a 74% so you can actually miss quite a few. once you get General you'll want to get on 40 meters and just listen for a while before you transmit, get a feel for how HF is different from the repeater stuff. its a pretty different world