How To Get Your Ham License
HamStudy.org has all the information needed to get your ham license. Features of the site include a Study Guide, Practice Exams, and Exam Locations. The study guide uses adaptive learning so it focuses on the areas you need to study while glossing over the questions and answers you know. HamStudy is free, and in our opinion is best Study Guide there is. HamStudy also has apps for the iphone and Android. The apps are nice because if you are also using a book to study the apps enable you to select the book and will then drill you on the questions of the chapter you are reading.
Here are some additional hints for studing... All of the questions in the question pool along with the answers are published, so if there is a concept you are struggling to understand just memorize the answer. Its nice to learn the material, but its likely much of the information on the exam you will never use again. If memorizing answers do not memorize the letters of the answers, memmorize the answers themselves because the order of the answers on the exams change. Kids are especially drawn to memorize answers this way. When studying focus on the right answer and do not read the distractors, this way when you take the exam your eyes will automatically gravitate to the right answer. Once you are consistently scoring 85% or more on the practice exams, you are ready to take the test in front of Volunteer Examiners. You only need 74% to pass the exam.
The actual test is just like the practice exams, the only diference is there is a person watching you take the exam to ensure you are not cheating. The Technician and General exams have 35 randomly selected questions from the question pool, and the Extra exam has 50. When taking the actual exam go with the first answer you think is correct, odds are it is correct. There are three exams, the first is the Technician, the second is the General, and the third is the Extra. The tests must be taken in order, you cannot take the second exam without taking the first. The same goes for the third exam in the series. You get more privileges with each level of license. You can do a lot with a Technician license, you can do a lot more with the General, and with the Extra you get little bit more. It costs $15 (or less) to take an exam, and if you pass an exam, you can usually take the next exam in the same sitting for free. The ham license costs $35. If you later upgrade your license, obtain a vanity call sign, or renew there is a one time additional charge of $35. Your license is good for ten years, and so long as you renew your license within the allotted time period, you will never have to take the exam again. You can renew your license up to 90 days before it expires and there is a 2 year grace period after it expires.