so ive been wanting to get my technician license for like two years now and i finally decided to just do it. problem is i dont really know what the best way to study is. i downloaded the question pool from the arrl website but honestly just reading through 400 questions feels kind of overwhelming and i dont know if im actually learning anything or just memorizing answers without understanding whats going on.

someone at the local club meeting told me to just use hamstudy.org and drill questions until i get like 90% consistently but another guy said i should actually read a study guide first so i understand the concepts. im not sure which approach is better. also some of the electrical theory stuff like ohms law and how to calculate antenna length is tripping me up a bit. is that stuff actually on the exam a lot or is it more the rules and regulations questions that show up more?

anyway any tips would be appreciated, i want to take the exam at the next club session which is in about 3 weeks

hamstudy is honestly where its at for drilling but the guy who said read something first wasnt wrong either. i used the arrl ham radio license manual when i studied and it actually explains the why behind stuff instead of just throwing questions at you. helped me a lot with the electrical theory because once you understand what voltage and current are actually doing the formulas make way more sense and you stop blanking on them.

the ohms law stuff does show up on the exam and its usually a few questions, not a ton, but enough that you want to be comfortable with it. the antenna length calculations too, those come up. honestly the formula E=IR and the basic resonant antenna stuff are worth spending an extra hour on just so theyre solid. regulations and operating procedures are a big chunk of the pool too so dont neglect that either.

3 weeks is plenty of time if you put in like 30 minutes a day. do some reading, then drill on hamstudy, and pay attention to which categories youre weak in and focus there toward the end. you got this

I passed mine last spring and pretty much just used hamstudy the whole time, didnt read any book. took me maybe two weeks of messing around with it during lunch breaks. the way the site tracks which questions you keep getting wrong is super helpful, it kind of automatically makes you focus on your weak spots which is nice.

the electrical theory tripped me up too at first but honestly on the actual exam the math questions are pretty straigthforward, like they give you numbers that work out cleanly. just memorize the triangle trick for ohms law if nothing else