so ive been trying to get my technician license for a few months now, kept putting it off but finally sitting down with it. im using the ARRL technician manual but honestly its a lot and i dont really know what parts matter more than others for the actual exam. like do i need to really understand all the math stuff or can i just kind of memorize the formulas and move on

also found a website called HamStudy that someone mentioned somewhere and it seems pretty good but im not sure if the question pool on there is current. i think they update it every few years? just dont want to study the wrong stuff. anyone gone through this recently and have a sense of what tripped them up or what was easier than expected

the question pool got updated not that long ago so just double check whatever site youre using says - on it somewhere, hamstudy does have the right one last i checked. honestly the math isnt that bad for tech, theres like maybe a handful of questions involving ohms law and you can just memorize E=IR and work backwards from there, they give you the same numbers basically every time so once you see the pattern its fine

what i'd say is just do practice exams over and over, like dont even bother reading the whole book cover to cover. read enough to understand the concepts vaguely then just hammer the practice tests. i think i did maybe 15 or 20 full practice exams before i went in and i passed with only two wrong. the ones about operating procedures and band privileges are the ones people miss a lot because they just skim those sections thinking its common sense but theres some specific details in there that'll get you

yeah HamStudy is fine, thats what most people use now. the ARRL book is good for actually learning stuff but if youre just trying to pass the test you can probably get away with less. Gordon West makes a study guide too thats more stripped down if the ARRL one feels like too much

the electrical safety and RF exposure questions always seem to catch people off guard just fyi