ok so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for like a year now and i finally decided to just go for it and take the technician exam. problem is i have no idea how to actually study for it. i looked up the question pool online and theres like 400+ questions and honestly it was pretty overwhelming. do people actually memorize all of those or is there some trick to it? a friend mentioned hamstudy.org but i wasnt sure if thats enough on its own or if i should also get like an actual book. i dont have a ton of time to study either, maybe an hour a day tops. any advice would be helpful, i really want to do this before the new question pool kicks in or whatever

hamstudy.org is honestly probably all you need if you're short on time. just do the practice exams every day and pay attention to the ones you keep getting wrong. the site tracks your weak spots which is pretty handy. the questions on the actual exam come straight from that same pool so there arent any surprises. some people swear by the ARRL technician manual but its kind of dense if youre just trying to pass and not necessarily understand every single thing deeply right away. i passed mine in about 3 weeks just grinding the practice tests, maybe 30-40 minutes a day. the math questions look scary but theres only a handful of them and they repeat a lot so just learn those specific ones

yeah dont stress too much about it, the tech exam really isnt that bad. i remember being in your exact position and thinking i needed to know everything about electronics theory and propagation and all that. you really dont, at least not for the exam. the question pool is public and the test is pulled directly from it so what you see in practice is literally what you get. one thing i'd add is to not just memorize the answers blindly if you can help it — understanding even a little bit of why the answer is correct makes it stick way better and also just makes you a better operator down the road. but if youre really crunched for time, pure memorization gets people through it every day. good luck, the hobby is worth it