so i decided i want to get my technician license and honestly i have no idea where to begin. i downloaded something called the question pool from some website but its like 400 questions and i dont even know if thats the right one or if its outdated. a friend told me to just memorize the answers without understanding them but that feels wrong, like what if i actually want to use the radio and not know what im doing

is there a study guide people actually recommend or do most people just use one of those online practice test sites. ive seen hamstudy.org mentioned a few times but im not sure if thats enough on its own or if i should get a book too. also not sure how long this realistically takes to study for, i work full time so i cant dedicate huge amounts of time to it

hamstudy.org is honestly probably all you need for passing the test, a lot of people way overthink the prep for tech. the question pool they use is current, they update it when the pool changes. just do the practice exams until you're consistently hitting like 85% or better and you'll be fine on test day. the actual exam is 35 questions and you need 26 right so the margin is pretty decent.

that said if you actually want to understand what youre doing and not just pass a test, the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual is pretty solid. its not super expensive and it explains the why behind a lot of the questions. the electricity and antenna stuff especially makes way more sense when someone explains it instead of just memorizing that the answer is 50 ohms or whatever. took me maybe 3 weeks of casual studying, maybe 30 minutes a night, before i felt ready.

i just did mine like two months ago so this is fresh for me. i used hamstudy and also watched some youtube videos when i got stuck on the electrical theory questions because i had zero background in that stuff. there's a guy called Dave Casler who does exam prep videos and he actually explains things pretty well, helped me understand the ohms law questions instead of just guessing.

the memorize vs understand debate is real but honestly for tech most of it isnt that hard to actually get once someone explains it. the band plan stuff and the rules/regulations questions are pretty much just memorization anyway. i think i studied maybe 2 weeks and passed no problem, dont stress too much about it