so ive been interested in ham radio for a while now and finally decided to just go for it and get my technician license. problem is i dont really know where to start with the studying. i looked up the question pool online and theres like 400+ questions and im kind of overwhelmed. do people actually memorize all of them or is there a better way to go about this? also i saw some people mention hamstudy.org but i wasnt sure if thats still up to date since the question pool apparently changes every few years or something. any advice would be appreciated, ive never really done anything like this before and im not sure how much time i need to set aside for it

hamstudy.org is definitely still good and yeah its current with the question pool. honestly the way most people do it is just grind the practice tests over and over until you're passing consistently, like in the high 80s or better. the actual exam pulls 35 questions from the pool so if you know the pool you're fine. some of the questions are kinda tricky if you dont understand the underlying concept but a lot of them you can just pattern-match your way through for the tech exam at least. i studied maybe an hour a day for like two weeks and passed no problem. the electrical questions tripped me up at first but theres a few simple formulas you just need to remember, ohms law and a couple others.

the Gordon West study book used to be the go-to thing and i still see people recommending it but honestly for tech you probably dont even need a physical book anymore. hamstudy or hamexam.org both work well and they track which questions youre getting wrong so you can focus on those. one thing id say is dont just memorize answers without understanding anything because when you actually get on the air and someone asks you why you're doing something a certain way you'll want to have at least a rough idea. but realistically the tech exam isnt that hard, most people i know passed it first try without a ton of prep. just do a few hundred practice questions and you should be good. what area are you in? sometimes clubs do free exam sessions and theyre usually pretty relaxed