so ive been a general for about 3 years now and i keep putting off the extra exam because everyone i talk to at the club makes it sound like you need an engineering degree to pass. i do fine with the practical stuff, been running HF for a while, do some CW, built a few kits. but when i crack open the question pool and start seeing stuff about filter topologies and reactance and all that im honestly not sure where to start.

is there a way to study this that doesnt involve me going back to school basically. and also is it actually worth it for the privileges, i mostly operate 40 and 20 meters so im not even sure what i get access to that i dont already have as a general

honestly the theory sections look scarier than they are once you dig in. i went through the hamstudy site pretty much every day for like 6 weeks and just kept drilling the questions until i recognized everything. the thing that helped me was not just memorizing the answer but actually looking up WHY the answer was right, there are some good youtube videos on the filter stuff especially. the reactance questions arent that bad once you remember a few basic formulas.

as for whether its worth it, depends what you want. the extra HF segments arent huge but on 40 meters there is a small chunk at the bottom that gets less crowded, especially during contests when the generals are all piled up together. and if you ever want to be a VE or upgrade your station license situation its just good to have. i kind of think of it as finishing something once you start the license path anyway.

i just passed mine like two months ago, the math looks worse than it is because the question pool only has so many variations. once you know the formula for like LC resonance or figuring out a filter cutoff frequency you see the same thing just with different numbers a few times. i used the Gordon West book and also just ran through hamstudy every night before bed. took me maybe 5 weeks of casual studying.

the extra segments on 80 and 75 are actually pretty nice if you do any phone, a bit less chaos down there. and yeah on 40 CW the bottom bit is extra only so thats probably relevant for you