so ive been a General for about two years now and honestly the HF privileges have been good enough that i never really pushed myself to study for Extra. but lately ive been running into those little slices of the bands that are Extra only and it gets annoying especially on 40 meters when things get crowded and all the good DX is sitting just below where i can operate.

my question i guess is how big of a jump is the Extra theory stuff really. i did fine on the General but some of those questions looked hard when i was flipping through. like the filter design stuff and the math behind impedance matching, is that stuff you actually need to understand or can you just memorize the pool like most people do for the lower licenses. i dont have an engineering background at all, im a delivery driver, so heavy math is not really my thing

honestly the pool is memorizable, most people do it that way and theres no shame in it. hamstudy.org will get you there if you just grind the questions for a few weeks. the math ones look scarier than they are because the answer choices are usually distinct enough that you can recognize the right ballpark even without working through it fully.

that said i will tell you that actually understanding the theory made me a way better operator after i passed. like the stuff about transmission lines and SWR finally clicked for me after i studied the Extra material even though ive been licensed for years. so if you have the time its worth slowing down and actually reading the ARRL Extra book instead of just flashcards. but if your goal is just the privileges, flashcards work fine too, no judgment

the 40m Extra sub-band is SO worth it, thats what finally pushed me to test last spring. i was in the same spot as you for like three years just sitting on General. the exam wasnt that bad, took me maybe six weeks of studying on my lunch breaks. the oscillator and filter questions tripped me up the most but you start seeing the patterns after a while