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There are many ways to go about getting your license, but if you decide you want to go the self-study route, I highly recommend using https://www.hamradiolicens

There are many ways to go about getting your license, but if you decide you want to go the self-study route, I highly recommend using https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/ https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/. I used this tool for a few months before taking my exam at MIT. Also, it's worth studying for the higher class licenses - when I took my exam, the instructor offered and encouraged everyone to take the exam for the higher class for free immediately after.

fr0sty 8y ago
I would put a vote in for http://hamstudy.org http://hamstudy.org as another good resource. In addition to having the question pools available and giving practice tests it also has user-contributed explanations of how to arrive at the correct answer for each question which I find very helpful.
- Aloha 8y ago
  I'd also highly recommend the Gordon West ham radio study books, they do an excellent job of teaching you both the answer, and the theory behind the answer.
  - joshuamcginnis 8y ago
    Thanks to you both for the additional resources. I wish I knew about these sooner.
  - kstrauser 8y ago
    That's how I studied for my exams: 1. Read through (and understand) West's book. 2. Go to qrz.com and take the practice tests until I could pass with a 95% multiple times in a row, and I had answered every question in the test database correctly at least once. You only need 85% to pass the real exam but I wanted a margin of error. I passed my tech, general, and extra exams on my first tries. That's the most prepared I've been for a test in decades.
    - fr0sty 8y ago
      > You only need 85% to pass the real exam. Current requirement is lower. Only 74% (26/35 or 37/50) to pass. One other thing to know is that the exam questions are split in to sections (35 sections for Tech/General, 50 for Extra) and only one question from each section is selected. This means that you don't need to worry about getting multiple questions from sections you struggle with and dragging down your score.
      - kstrauser 8y ago
        Yikes, you're right. It was 74% when I tested, too - not sure where I pulled 85% from. I still pushed for 95% to have the wide margin of error though.

fr0sty 8y ago

I would put a vote in for http://hamstudy.org http://hamstudy.org as another good resource. In addition to having the question pools available and giving practice tests it also has user-contributed explanations of how to arrive at the correct answer for each question which I find very helpful.

Aloha 8y ago
I'd also highly recommend the Gordon West ham radio study books, they do an excellent job of teaching you both the answer, and the theory behind the answer.
- joshuamcginnis 8y ago
  Thanks to you both for the additional resources. I wish I knew about these sooner.
- kstrauser 8y ago
  That's how I studied for my exams: 1. Read through (and understand) West's book. 2. Go to qrz.com and take the practice tests until I could pass with a 95% multiple times in a row, and I had answered every question in the test database correctly at least once. You only need 85% to pass the real exam but I wanted a margin of error. I passed my tech, general, and extra exams on my first tries. That's the most prepared I've been for a test in decades.
  - fr0sty 8y ago
    > You only need 85% to pass the real exam. Current requirement is lower. Only 74% (26/35 or 37/50) to pass. One other thing to know is that the exam questions are split in to sections (35 sections for Tech/General, 50 for Extra) and only one question from each section is selected. This means that you don't need to worry about getting multiple questions from sections you struggle with and dragging down your score.
    - kstrauser 8y ago
      Yikes, you're right. It was 74% when I tested, too - not sure where I pulled 85% from. I still pushed for 95% to have the wide margin of error though.