so ive been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now and finally decided to just go for it and take the technician exam. problem is i dont really know how to study for it. like i looked up the question pool and theres like 400+ questions in there and it kind of freaked me out a bit. do people actually memorize all of them or is there some smarter way to do this?

i bought a book, i think its the arrl technician manual or something like that, but honestly its kind of dense in some parts especially the electronics stuff. i dont have much background in that area. is it worth reading the whole thing cover to cover or should i just do practice tests and look stuff up when i get something wrong? someone at work told me to just use one of those websites that quizzes you but i wasnt sure if that was actually enough to pass or just like a shortcut that leaves gaps.

anyway just looking for what actually worked for people, not trying to over study but also dont want to fail and have to wait to retake it

honestly the question pool method is totally fine. the actual exam pulls directly from that pool so if you can consistently get like 80%+ on practice tests you're pretty much ready. HamStudy dot org is what most people use and it does a decent job of tracking which questions you keep missing so you can focus on those.

the electronics stuff tripped me up too, things like ohms law and reading a basic circuit. but theres only so many questions on the actual test about that and if you just memorize the formulas and do a few practice problems you'll be alright. the regulatory stuff and operating procedures are honestly easier to learn because it just makes sense once you know a little context about why the rules exist.

i read maybe half the arrl book and then switched to just doing practice tests and that worked fine. passed with a couple wrong, dont remember exactly. the exam itself felt way less scary than i expected.

HamStudy is what i tell everyone. just do that every day for a couple weeks and youll be fine. the pool repeats a lot once you start recognizing the patterns. some of the questions are honestly worded weird but you get used to it.