so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for like two years now and i finally decided to just go for it and take the technician exam. problem is i dont really know where to start with studying. i looked at the question pool on the arrl website and theres like 400 something questions and i kind of panicked a little. do people actually memorize all of them or is there some smarter way to go about it. a buddy at work said just use hamexam.org and grind through it but i dont know if thats enough or if i should also get a book. i have about 3 weeks before the next local VE session so im not totally rushing but i also dont want to waste time going in the wrong way

hamexam.org is honestly probably all you need if you're the type who learns by doing. i passed tech in about 10 days just hammering that site every evening after work for maybe 45 mins. the way it tracks which questions you keep getting wrong is actually really useful. that said some of the electrical theory stuff like ohms law and the decibel questions make a lot more sense if you read even a little bit of background on them rather than just memorizing the answers, because occasionally they word a question slightly differently and if you just memorized you might get tripped up. gordon west's book is popular and pretty short but honestly i never finished mine and still passed fine

yeah the 400 questions thing looks scary but you only get 35 on the actual test and need like 26 to pass so the margin is more forgiving than it seems. i'd say do the practice exams on hamstudy.org too, slightly different interface than hamexam and sometimes one clicks better than the other depending on the person. the section on operating procedures and regulations is pretty easy points, dont neglect it just because it sounds boring. the antenna and propagation stuff tripped me up more than i expected honestly, seemed straightforward but a few of those questions are weirdly specific about frequencies and band privileges