so ive been a general for about 3 years now and i keep going back and forth on whether to bother with the extra class exam. like i get that you get the full privileges and the extra portions of the HF bands which honestly would be nice on 20m when its crowded, but the theory on that exam looks brutal. been flipping through the question pool and some of that stuff about filter design and antenna theory at that level, i mean i took basic electronics back in the day but that was a long time ago. is it actually useful stuff to know or is it just like... memorize it pass the test and forget it. im not planning to become an engineer or anything i just like ragchewing and some occasional contesting. anyone here actually use the theory they learned for extra in their day to day operating

honestly for ragchewing and casual contesting the extra segments arent going to change your life but they do help on 20m and 40m when things get packed. the theory though, i'll say this — when i studied for mine i actually started understanding WHY my antenna was doing weird things and why certain filters matter for my radio. its not like you use the math directly but it kind of rewires how you think about the whole station. the exam is memorizable for sure, plenty of people do it that way and theres nothing wrong with that. i used the hamstudy site and just drilled questions for maybe 6 weeks and passed no problem. if youve been a general for 3 years you probably already understand more than you think

i just passed mine last month and yeah some of those questions are weird like who actually calculates the reactance of a network in their head while operating lol. but the extra band segments on 75/80m and 20m are genuinely worth it if you contest at all. cw portion of 40m too. i mostly just memorized the pool tbh, took me like 4 weeks of studying on lunch breaks. dont overthink it just start doing practice exams and youll figure out which areas you actually need to work on