so i decided i want to get my technician license and ive been looking around online for study materials but theres just so much stuff out there i dont really know whats worth using vs whats outdated or whatever. a friend of mine said just memorize the question pool but that seems like it would take forever and i wouldnt actually understand anything. is there like a standard way people do this or does everyone just kind of figure it out on their own

also i saw there are apps for this, are any of them actually good? i downloaded one but it seems like it just throws random questions at me with no structure which is kind of overwhelming when you dont know anything yet

yeah the question pool thing is actually not as bad as it sounds once you get into it. the current tech pool has like 400 something questions and the actual exam only pulls 35 of them so if you grind through the pool enough times you start recognizing stuff pretty quick. i used hamstudy.org and honestly that site is really good, it tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and focuses on those. took me maybe 2 weeks of like 20-30 minutes a day before i felt ready and i passed first try.

the understanding vs memorizing thing -- i get what you mean but honestly for tech a lot of it is just rules and regs stuff that you kind of have to memorize anyway, and the technical parts arent that deep. if you want to actually understand the why behind things the ARRL handbook is great but its definitely overkill just to pass the exam. gordon west has a study guide thats pretty popular and it explains things in plain english if you want something more structured than just flashcards

Ham Study app is the one most people seem to end up using, its basically the same as the website. i'll be honest i just did the question pool for like 3 weeks and passed, didnt read any book. felt kinda bad about it but then again i learned a ton more just by getting on the air and talking to people after i got my ticket. the exam is kind of just a formality at the tech level imo

find out if theres a local club near you that does license classes too, some of them are free and having someone explain the electricity basics in person is way easier than trying to figure out ohms law from a website at midnight