so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now and finally decided to just go for the tech license. problem is i dont really know where to start with studying. a friend mentioned the ARRL handbook but that seems like way overkill for just the tech exam? also saw some stuff about hamstudy.org online but idk if thats enough on its own or if i should get an actual book too

also kind of confused about the question pool thing, like is the actual test pulled directly from those questions or is it similar questions or what. im a pretty fast learner but i have zero background in electronics so some of the math stuff is going to be rough probably

any advice appreciated, trying to take the exam in like 3-4 weeks

hamstudy.org is honestly all you need for most people, i passed with just that and maybe 2 weeks of studying on and off. the questions on the actual exam ARE from the pool, like word for word, so if you grind hamstudy until you're hitting 85%+ consistently you'll be fine. the site even tracks which questions you get wrong and keeps throwing them at you which is really helpful

the ARRL tech manual is decent if you actually want to understand the material rather than just memorize answers, but for passing the exam it's kind of overkill like your friend said. the math on the tech exam is pretty basic, just ohms law stuff and a little bit of antenna length calculation, nothing crazy. if you get stuck on a formula just look up the specific question type on youtube, theres tons of short explainer videos

also check if there's a local club near you doing a license class, some of them do weekend cram sessions and you can take the exam right after which is convenient

yeah the question pool thing tripped me up too when i was studying. its literally the same exact questions, they dont paraphrase or anything. i think the current technician pool has something like 400 questions and the exam pulls 35 from it so you just gotta know most of them. i used hamstudy and also watched the ham radio crash course videos on youtube which helped a lot for the concepts i didnt get just from reading

took me about 3 weeks studying maybe 20-30 min a day and passed no problem. good luck