ok so ive been lurking on this hobby for like two years watching youtube videos and listening to my neighbor talk about it and i finally just decided to actually do it and get licensed. problem is i dont really know where to start with studying. i looked at the FCC website and it was kind of overwhelming and then someone mentioned the question pool and im not sure if i should just memorize answers or actually try to understand the material. i dont have a huge technical background, i took physics in high school like 15 years ago and barely remember any of it. is the technician exam actually hard or am i overthinking this. also how long does it realistically take to study before i feel ready to take the test

honestly you are overthinking it. the tech exam really isnt that bad, most people i know passed it studying for like 2-3 weeks, some did it in a weekend if they already had some electronics background. the question pool is public which is kind of weird when you think about it but it means you can literally study the exact questions that will be on the test. that said i'd recommend actually understanding the stuff and not just memorizing because when you get on the air you'll want to know why certain things are the way they are, especially the rules and regs stuff which is just pure memorization anyway.

hamstudy.org is where most people start now, its free and it tracks which questions you're getting wrong and drills you on those. the ARRL technician manual is good if you want a physical book to read through but honestly between hamstudy and maybe watching some of the hamradioprep videos on youtube you'll probably be fine. just take a bunch of practice exams until you're consistently scoring above 80 percent and then go book your test through a local club or online through one of the remote testing options.

i was in exactly your position about 8 months ago, zero background in electronics, felt super lost. I used hamradioprep dot com and paid for the course which was like 25 bucks i think and it walked through everything in a pretty sensible order with little videos. took me about 3 weeks studying maybe 30 mins a night. passed first try with a 32 out of 35 which i was genuinely surprised by. the math questions scared me the most but theres really only a handful of formulas you need and if you just practice those few types of problems it stops being scary pretty quick. good luck, it's worth it