so ive been a tech for about 2 years now and mostly just been doing 2m/70cm stuff at the club and some APRS messing around. decided i want to actually get on HF and people keep telling me to just go take the general exam, shouldnt be too hard coming from tech they say.

anyway ive been using the hamstudy.org thing and its going okay but some of the questions feel totally random to me, like the electrical stuff and the propagation questions kind of blur together. is there like a certain section i should really focus on or is it pretty evenly distributed on the actual exam. also whats the deal with the 35 questions, is it literally just random pulled from the pool or does it follow some pattern

also once i pass, do i actually have to wait for my license to update in the ULS before i can get on 40m or whatever, or can i operate right after i pass at the session. i know theres something about the CSCE but im not sure exactly how that works in practice

the exam is pulled from the question pool in a pretty structured way actually, each subelement has a set number of questions that come from it so its not completely random. like youll always get a certain number from the operating procedures section vs the electrical principles section. the hamstudy thing does a decent job of tracking which areas youre weak in so just keep hammering the ones where youre getting stuff wrong.

on the CSCE question yes you can operate with general privileges as soon as you pass, you dont have to wait for ULS to update. the CSCE the VE team gives you is your proof that you passed and you can use that. just make sure you actually get it from them before you leave the session. some guys have walked out without grabbing it and then had to track down the VE team later which is a pain. your callsign wont change but your class will update in ULS usually within a few days and after that you dont really need the CSCE anymore.

I just did this like 4 months ago, went from tech to general. Honestly the electrical stuff tripped me up too at first but once i watched a couple youtube videos explaining how to actually do the math for the impedance and resonance questions it clicked. dont just memorize the answers for those ones because the numbers change slightly sometimes and if you understand whats actually happening its easier. the propagation questions i just brute forced memorized and that worked fine for me

40m is great by the way, got my first real DX contact within a week of upgrading, was pretty stoked