so i decided i want to get my technician license and ive been poking around online trying to figure out how to study for it but theres so much stuff out there i dont really know what to use. i downloaded the question pool PDF from the ARRL website but honestly its like 400 questions and i dont even know if i should just memorize all of them or actually try to understand the material. a friend told me hamstudy.org is good but then someone else said to get a book. do people actually read the whole book or just do practice tests over and over until they pass? i feel like i could probably pass just memorizing answers but im not sure if thats the right way to go about it. also the math stuff scares me a little, like ohms law and the decibel questions. is there a lot of actual math on the test or is most of it just rules and regulations type stuff

hamstudy.org is honestly all you need for the tech exam, i wouldnt even bother with the book unless you really want to understand the why behind everything. the question pool is public so the site just drills you on the actual questions that will be on your test. once youre consistently getting like 85% or better on the practice exams youre probably ready to go sit for it. the math isnt that bad, theres maybe a handful of ohms law questions and the formula is literally V=IR, if you can remember that and do basic multiplication youll be fine. the decibel stuff is mostly just memorizing that 3dB is double the power and 10dB is 10x, you dont have to do any real log math. i passed mine in like 2 weeks just doing hamstudy for 20 minutes a night

the memorization approach works fine for passing the test but i'll say from experience you might regret it later when you're actually on the air and have no idea why your SWR is doing what its doing or whatever. I used the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual and yeah its a bit dry in places but it actually explains how propagation works, why you need a license at certain power levels, all that. took me maybe 3 weeks reading a chapter here and there. that said i also used hamstudy alongside it to make sure i was hitting the actual question formats. the math questions on the exam are genuinely easy once you see a few examples, dont let that part stress you out