so ive been trying to study for the technician exam for the past couple weeks and honestly its a little overwhelming. im using the ARRL technician manual but im not sure if im even studying the right way. like do i need to memorize every single question in the pool or is there a smarter way to do this?

someone at work told me to just use HamStudy but i dont know if thats enough on its own or if i should also be reading the book. the math questions especially are stressing me out, the ones about ohms law and decibels and stuff. i passed high school physics like 15 years ago so that part of my brain is basically gone lol

any advice would be really appreciated, i want to take the exam sometime next month if possible

HamStudy is honestly probably the best thing you can do, dont stress too much about the book unless you actually want to understand the material deeper which isnt a bad idea but its not required to pass. the question pool is public so the exam is literally just pulling questions straight from it, no surprises.

for the math stuff, there really isnt that much of it on the tech exam. ohms law is just E=IR and if you can remember that and do basic multiplication you'll get those. the decibel questions are more about memorizing a few key numbers than actually calculating anything -- like 3dB is roughly doubling power, 10dB is 10x, that kind of thing. just drill those on HamStudy until they feel automatic and youll be fine.

i studied for maybe 2 weeks using HamStudy every day on my lunch break and passed with only a couple wrong. its very doable dont overthink it

yeah what he said about HamStudy is right. I'd also add that once you start getting above like 80% consistently on the practice tests you're probably ready. some people overstudy and then second guess themselves on the actual exam which is way worse than just going in confident.

one thing i'll mention -- the VE sessions near me sometimes let you retake same day if you fail which takes a lot of pressure off. might be worth checking with whoever is running the exam session in your area. either way the fee is pretty small so even if you had to do it twice its not the end of the world, though you'll almost certainly pass first try if youre putting in the time