so ive been a General for about three years now and i keep telling myself ill upgrade but never actually sit down and do it. last weekend i finally started going through the question pool and honestly some of this stuff is way over my head. like i understand the basic electronics from when i got my General but the Extra pool has all this stuff about filter design and Smith charts and impedance matching that i kind of glazed over the first time around.

im not really a math guy so the formulas are a bit rough. im using HamStudy and just brute forcing the flashcards but i feel like im just memorizing answers without actually understanding whats going on, especially the stuff about transmission line theory and the more advanced propagation questions. does anyone have a resource they actually liked for the theory side of it, not just the question pool? or is everyone basically just memorizing it anyway

honestly most people just memorize the pool and thats fine, theres no shame in it. the test is multiple choice and if you can pass it you pass it. that said if you actually want to understand the transmission line stuff the ARRL Handbook has a decent section on it, and there used to be a free PDF floating around called something like "Reflections" by W2DU that goes real deep on SWR and transmission lines if youre into that rabbit hole.

the Smith chart stuff looks scary but once someone explains to you that its basically just a graphical way to do impedance calculations it becomes less intimidating. i watched a few YouTube videos on it before my Extra exam and that helped more than reading about it. i think W7BRS or somebody had a good one but i dont remember exactly. just search smith chart ham radio and youll find something. the filter questions and the op-amp stuff i mostly just memorized if im honest, some of it you'd need an actual EE course to really get into properly.

I went through the same thing about a year ago. The Extra pool isnt as bad as it looks once you get momentum going. I used the Gordon West book alongside HamStudy and that helped me at least have some context for why the answers are what they are even if I wasnt deriving anything from scratch.

One thing I'll say is dont stress too hard about fully understanding every concept before you test. Get your ticket first, then go back and dig into the stuff that interests you. Ive learned way more about the theory stuff since passing than I ever did studying for it, just from building things and reading when something specific comes up. The privileges are worth it too, having access to those CW and phone sub-bands on 75 and 40 makes a real difference especially when its crowded.