so ive been kind of putting this off for a while but my buddy finally talked me into just going for it and signing up for a session at the local club. problem is i dont really know where to start. i downloaded the question pool from arrl or whatever and its just... a lot. like some of it makes sense and some of it is just total gibberish to me (the electricity math stuff especially). been watching some youtube videos but they kind of jump around and i feel like im missing context.

is there a specific study guide people actually recommend or is just drilling the question pool enough? i heard hamstudy.org is good but i dont know if just memorizing answers is gonna screw me over later or if thats just how everyone does it

hamstudy is legit, thats basically what i used and passed first try. the thing is the question pool for tech isnt that huge and a lot of it is just recognizing the right answer once youve seen it a few times. the math stuff like ohms law is maybe 3-4 questions tops and honestly if you just remember V=IR and how to rearrange it youre probably fine for those.

that said if you actually want to understand what youre doing and not just pass the test, the gordon west technician book is pretty readable, its not super dense. i read through it kind of casually while also doing the practice tests and it helped the stuff stick better. but if youre short on time just hammer hamstudy for a week or two and you should be good. when the practice tests are consistently coming back 85 percent or higher youre probably ready

yeah dont stress too much about the math honestly. i was terrified of it and ended up only getting like two or three of those questions on my actual exam. the regulatory stuff and the safety questions are way more of the test than people expect. like knowing what frequencies technicians can use on HF, that trips people up because its kind of a weird rule.

i just used hamstudy for about two weeks maybe 20 minutes a day and passed pretty easy. good luck