ok so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now and finally decided to actually go for the technician license. problem is i dont really know where to start with studying. i looked at the question pool on the arrl website and its just... a lot. like do i need to actually understand all of it or is it more of just memorize the answers kind of deal? also someone at work mentioned a hamstudy website but i wasnt sure if that was legit or just some random thing. any advice would be helpful, i have maybe 2-3 weeks before theres a test session near me

hamstudy.org is absolutely the real deal, that's probably the main thing most people use now. the way it works is it pulls from the actual question pool that the FCC uses so youre literally studying the exact questions that might show up on your test. the thing about the tech exam is yeah a lot of it you can just memorize the answers without fully understanding why, but honestly the electrical stuff and the regs sections arent that hard if you spend a little time on them. i passed mine in like 10 days just doing hamstudy on my phone during lunch. they have this mode where it tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and hammers those specifically, that feature alone is worth it. the ARRL Tech manual is fine too but honestly for just passing the exam you probably dont need to buy anything

2-3 weeks is plenty of time dont stress it. the pool has 426 questions but the actual exam is only 35 and you need 26 right to pass so the bar isnt super high. i'd say just do hamstudy every day for like 20-30 minutes and you'll be fine. the parts that trip people up are usually the band privileges stuff and some of the basic electronics questions about ohms law and that kind of thing but there are only a handful of those and once you see the pattern you'll get them. good luck, the test isnt as scary as it looks