so ive been wanting to get my tech license for a while now and i finally sat down to actually study but honestly im kind of overwhelmed. theres so many different study guides and apps and websites and i dont really know which ones are actually worth using vs which ones are just a waste of time.

a guy at work who has his general told me to just memorize the question pool and not bother understanding it but that feels wrong? like i want to actually know what im doing when i get on the air. but also i dont want to fail the test because i overthought everything and ran out of time studying the theory behind ohms law or whatever.

is there like a standard thing most people do to prep for this or does everyone kind of find their own way. the exam is in about 6 weeks if that matters

six weeks is plenty of time honestly, dont stress too much. the question pool for tech is only like 400 something questions and the actual test pulls 35 from that pool so if you just grind through hamstudy.org every day for a couple weeks you'll probably be fine. that site tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and focuses on those which is actually pretty useful.

your coworker isnt totally wrong though — a lot of people do just memorize answers and pass fine. but if you actually want to enjoy the hobby and not be completely lost when someone talks about antenna feedlines or repeater offsets or whatever, understanding the why behind stuff does help. i'd say do both, use the question pool to drill answers but if something doesnt make sense look it up real quick. the electrical stuff like ohms law does show up and theres a few math questions but theyre not bad at all once you see the pattern. kb6nu also has a free study guide thats pretty good and its written more like a person talking than a textbook

i passed mine last year and basically just did hamstudy for like 2 weeks every night before bed. maybe 20-30 min a session. failed a practice test the first night, was passing them consistently by like day 10. the real test felt easier than the practice ones tbh

the one thing i wish someone told me is dont skip the rules and regulations section even if its boring, there are a lot of questions from that part and its easy points if you just read through it once