so ive been a General for about 3 years now and people keep telling me to just go ahead and get my Extra but honestly the practice tests are kind of kicking my teeth in on the theory sections. like i get the operating stuff and the regulations are annoying but fine, its the actual electronics theory and the filter stuff and impedance matching questions that feel like they came from an EE degree program or something

i dont have a technical background at all, worked in logistics my whole career, so this stuff doesnt come naturally. just wondering if anyone else went through this without a math background and actually passed it, and whether the theory actually comes up in real operating or if its one of those things you learn for the test and never think about again

also i see some people say you can just memorize the question pool and be done with it, is that still realistic or have they changed things up recently

yeah the Extra pool is definitely a step up but honestly not as bad as people make it out to be once you sit down with it. i had zero electronics background when i went for it and what helped me was just going through the ARRL Extra Class License Manual and not skipping the theory chapters even when my eyes glazed over. you dont need to fully understand every formula but getting a rough feel for why LC circuits behave the way they do makes the questions click better than pure memorization

the memorize-the-pool approach still works for passing the test, people do it all the time, but you might find yourself confused later when you actually want to do something like build an antenna tuner or troubleshoot your rig. the privileges are real though, having access to those Extra-only segments on 40 and 75 meters makes a noticeable difference during contests and when the bands are crowded. took me about 6 weeks of studying maybe 20-30 minutes a day and i passed on the first try, so it's definitely doable without a technical degree

the filter questions got me too lol. i just hammered ham study dot com every night for like a month and eventually the answers just kinda stuck even if i couldnt explain why. passed it last spring. the extra segments are nice but tbh i mostly just wanted the certificate if im being honest