so ive been studying for like three weeks now and im pretty sure im ready but also kind of not sure if that makes sense. i've been using the hamstudy website which has been great for drilling questions but i keep second guessing myself on the electrical theory stuff, like the ohms law questions are fine but some of the other formulas trip me up. i guess my main question is how hard is the actual test compared to just doing practice exams online, and is there anything that catches people off guard that i should know about going in? also do they give you scratch paper or anything for the math questions

honestly if youre passing the practice tests consistently you're going to be fine. the real test felt easier to me than the hamstudy drills because you only need 26 out of 35 right, which is a lot of room for error. they do give you scratch paper at most sessions, at least every VE session ive been to has, but double check with whoever is running yours just to be safe.

the one thing that tripped me up was just nerves more than anything technical. i kept re-reading questions and changing my answers when my gut was right the first time. dont do that. also the pool repeats a lot so if you've seen like 500 practice questions you've probably seen almost everything already just worded slightly different sometimes.

Three weeks of hamstudy is plenty for the Tech exam, you're probably overthinking it. I've helped administer probably a hundred of these sessions over the years and the people who fail are usually the ones who barely studied or just tried to memorize answers without understanding anything at all. Sounds like you've actually put in the work.

For the math stuff, yeah just know your basic Ohm's law triangle and remember that power is voltage times current. Most of the formula questions on the Tech exam aren't that deep. The regulations questions are honestly where people lose more points than the theory sections in my experience, things like band privileges and what frequencies Technicians can actually use. Worth reviewing that section one more time before you go in.