so i decided i want to get my technician license and i bought a book a few weeks ago but honestly i havent really cracked it open yet. a friend told me the hamstudy website is good but then someone else said just memorize the question pool and dont bother learning the actual material. i dont know which way to go with this. like is there actual stuff you need to understand or can you really just brute force the memorization and pass? the exam has 35 questions right? i just dont want to show up and completely bomb it, im not great at tests in general

honestly the hamstudy.org approach works really well for most people, you just do the practice tests over and over until you're consistently scoring like 80% or better and you'll be fine on the real thing. the question pool is public so theres no surprises. that said i'd at least skim the sections on like basic electrical theory and the regulations stuff because some of those questions are worded tricky and if you actually understand WHY the answer is what it is you wont second guess yourself. i did mine in about 3 weeks just doing 20-30 minutes a day on hamstudy during lunch breaks. yes its 35 questions and you need 26 to pass so theres some wiggle room

the book you bought, is it the ARRL one or the Gordon West study guide? both are fine but they're pretty different in how they explain things. Gordon West reads more like someone talking to you which some people prefer. i'll be honest i skipped big chunks of my book and just did practice questions and passed no problem, but i also already had some background in electronics from work so your mileage may vary. the RF safety section trips a lot of people up for some reason so dont skip that part, theres maybe 4 or 5 questions from that topic on the actual pool and they're kind of weirdly worded