so i've been wanting to get into ham radio for a while now and finally decided to just go for it and take the technician exam. i downloaded some stuff but honestly theres so much information i dont even know what to actually focus on. like do i need to memorize every single question in the pool or is there a smarter way to do this. i tried reading the ARRL handbook someone lent me and it felt way too deep for what i actually need right now. is there like a specific study guide people actually use or does everyone just grind the question pool until it sticks

honestly the question pool is the way to go, thats literally what the exam pulls from so if you know those you're fine. i used HamStudy dot org when i was prepping and it was pretty solid, it tracks which questions you keep getting wrong and focuses on those. took me maybe two weeks of doing like 20-30 questions a night after work and i passed with only a couple wrong. the math questions scared me at first but theres only a few of them and once you see the pattern for like ohms law and decibels it clicks pretty fast. dont worry about the handbook at this stage, thats way overkill for the tech exam

yeah what the other person said, HamStudy is probably the most popular one right now. there's also the Gordon West study guide which a lot of people like because it actually explains the why behind the answers instead of just making you memorize stuff, which helped me personally retain it better. the tech pool isnt that bad honestly, i think its like 400 something questions and only 35 show up on the real test. the electrical and antenna theory sections tripped me up a little but everything else is pretty straightforward if you just spend some time with it. also look up if theres a local club near you doing exam sessions, sometimes they have elmers who run free study nights which can be really helpful if you get stuck on anything