so ive been a tech for about two years now mostly doing 2m and some 70cm stuff, local repeaters, a little APRS. but ive been hearing people talk about HF and honestly it sounds amazing, being able to actually talk to people across the country or even other continents on like 40m or 20m just with a wire antenna in the backyard.

anyway i started looking at the General class pool and its kind of overwhelming. there's a lot of stuff in there about propagation and operating procedures and then all the electrical theory which i never really felt like i fully understood even for the tech exam. i've been using HamStudy and just grinding through the questions but some of them i genuinely dont understand why the answer is what it is, im just memorizing at that point.

is that okay to do, just memorize the pool? or will i be totally lost on HF if i dont actually understand what im doing. also how long did it take people to feel ready to actually sit for the exam

honestly the memorization approach works fine for passing the test, the pool isnt that huge and HamStudy does a good job of tracking what you're weak on. i did pretty much the same thing when i upgraded and passed no problem. that said some of the propagation stuff like understanding why 40m works better at night or why 10m goes dead for years at a time, that stuff actually helps you when you're sitting there spinning the dial wondering why nobody is coming back to your calls. so maybe dont go full zombie memorize mode on everything, the propagation and band plan stuff is worth actually getting.

the electrical theory questions i mostly just memorized and i'll be honest i still cant tell you exactly how to calculate the impedance of a parallel LC circuit from scratch, but i can operate just fine. give yourself maybe 3-4 weeks of regular study sessions and you should be good

i upgraded like 8 months ago and was in the exact same spot you're describing. the exam itself felt easier than i expected after all the anxiety of studying. just keep doing practice exams on HamStudy until you're consistently hitting 80% or better and you'll pass. the real learning honestly happens after, when you actually get on HF and start figuring out what the bands are doing and why your signal is going one place and not another. no amount of studying really prepares you for that part, you just have to get on the air