so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now and finally decided to just go for it and take the technician exam. i downloaded some stuff but honestly theres so much out there i dont know whats worth using vs what i can just skip. like do i need to read an actual book or is just drilling the question pool enough to pass? i heard the pool has something like 400+ questions and only 35 show up on the test so im wondering if i can just memorize answers without really understanding everything. also is the electrical theory stuff actually important or can i kind of gloss over that part

honestly the question pool memorization approach works fine for passing the test, a lot of people do it that way. hamstudy.org is probably the best free tool for this, it tracks which questions youre getting wrong and keeps drilling those. i passed in like 2 weeks just using that site for maybe 20-30 minutes a day. that said the electrical theory stuff will actually help you later when youre trying to figure out why your antenna isnt working or whatever, so its not totally useless even if you can skip it for the exam. the ohms law questions come up a fair amount so dont completely ignore that section

yeah hamstudy is what everyone recommends and for good reason. but if you want an actual book the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual is the one most people use, its pretty readable even if you have zero background. i will say though dont stress too much about understanding every single concept before your test date, you can always learn the deeper stuff after you get your ticket. the test really isnt that hard once youve gone through the pool a few times. some of the questions about frequencies and band privileges are worth actually learning though because youll need to know them when you actually start operating, otherwise youll just be confused out there