so ive had my technician for about 8 months now and honestly i mostly just use it for local repeaters and some simplex stuff but ive been reading about HF and i really want to try it out, specifically 40m and maybe 20m eventually. my buddy keeps telling me the general exam is way harder than technician but i dont know if he actually took it recently or if hes just going off old info.

i grabbed the gordon west book and also been using hamStudy which seems pretty good but some of the questions about like propagation and the electrical theory stuff is kind of going over my head. is there a certain part of the pool i should really focus on? or is it worth just grinding all the flashcards until i can pass the practice tests consistently. also not sure if i need to understand all the theory or if just memorizing the answers is fine for passing

any advice would be helpful, trying to take the exam sometime next month if i can get ready in time

honest answer — the general pool has more meat to it than tech but it's not some huge leap. the electrical stuff tripped me up too at first but once you get ohm's law and the basic circuit stuff to click it makes the rest easier to follow. i'd say dont just memorize blindly if you can help it because some of the questions are worded weird and if you actually understand what they're asking you wont get faked out by the similar-looking wrong answers.

hamStudy is solid, i used it when i upgraded and just kept doing practice exams until i was consistently hitting like 85% or better, then i felt okay going in. propagation questions seem intimidating but there's really only so many ways they can ask about ionospheric layers and skip distance before it starts repeating. give yourself a few weeks of studying maybe 20-30 minutes a day and you should be fine. the general is definitely passable without being an engineer, lots of people with zero background pass it

i took mine like 6 weeks after getting my tech and passed first try, the practice tests on hamStudy really do prepare you pretty well. the part about operating priveledges and band plans tripped me up a little because theres a lot of overlap to keep track of but just make sure you know which portions of HF bands general gets vs extra and youll be okay for those questions. once you get it you'll want a radio immediately lol, 40m at night is something else