okay so i decided i want to get my technician license and i downloaded the question pool from the arrl website but honestly its kind of overwhelming. like there are 400+ questions in there and i dont really know if i should just memorize all of them or actually try to understand the material. my buddy who got his ticket a few years ago said just memorize the answers but that feels wrong somehow. is there a better way to go about this? also are the practice tests on hamstudy.org actually representative of what the real test looks like because ive been using that but not sure if im wasting my time

hamstudy is legit, thats basically what everyone uses now. the actual exam pulls directly from that same question pool so if youre scoring consistently above like 80% on there you should be fine. i passed mine first try doing nothing but hamstudy for about two weeks, maybe 20-30 minutes a day. the thing is some of the questions are genuinely worth understanding — especially the electrical stuff and the band privileges, because that actually matters when you start operating. the pure memorization approach works but youll be lost when someone asks you something simple on the air and you have no clue why the answer is what it is

gordan west technician manual is what i used back in the day, not sure if its still current for this version of the question pool but worth checking. some people swear by the arrl handbook approach but honestly for tech class thats overkill. just grind hamstudy until the questions start feeling familiar, theres also a decent android app if you want something to do on your commute or whatever. the exam itself is 35 questions and you need 26 right so the margin is actually pretty forgiving