Context: This post covers the learning methods I used to pass the Technician, General, and Amateur Extra ham radio exams in one session. It doesn't do a very good job of explaining why you should get licensed, just how.
TL;DR - Watch this YouTube video to learn how to register for your first exam, find a testing session, then read or listen to the recommended books below and take practice exams until you regularly pass them.
It was never my intention to speed run the exams; the fact that everything was knocked out in 31 days was a happy coincidence. I stumbled upon the YouTube video above and noticed that the 2022 Technician question pool was set to expire in 1 month. Every 4 years, all the license tiers undergo a new revision to keep the content fresh, so with nearly 4 full years of learning material behind it, there was no better time to study and strive. Each following section lists how many days it took me to pass the practice exams and hindsight opinions.
Read: The Ham Book | Listened: The Fast Track to Technician | Studied: HamStudy App
For this certification, I'm confident just the Ham Book and HamStudy app are more than enough to pass. The Fast Track audiobook was nice to have, but I didn't get more than halfway before I started nailing the practice exams. Either works. I'm certain most people can get a callsign in a week or less of casual study this way.
Listened: Fast Track to General | Studied: HamStudy App
I solely listened to the audiobook and used the HamStudy app until my practice exam average was above 80%. The Ham Book's General version was incomplete when I went to read it, a lot of chapters had missing images, work-in-progress banners, etc. so I went with the Fast Track to General audiobook instead. It was just a little too dense to listen to, I wish I ordered the physical book instead as a lot of the material included accompanying diagrams and illustrations, like sections on climatology and ionospheric propagation.
The content is definitely more technical than Technician, but not by much. More regulations, specific frequency memorization, and plain trivia added to the cognitive load. But it was all about radio and making long distance contacts, which I found very interesting and pragmatic.
Read: Fast Track to AE Physical Book | Studied: HamStudy App
This one is not like the others. Whereas I was able to passively listen to audiobooks for the preview two exams, AE is far too dense in my opinion. I ordered the physical Fast Track to AE book, which despite the name, was a pretty slow burn. For two and a half weeks, I read it carefully morning and night while keeping up with the questions in HamStudy. Certain topics are very dense, so I'd supplement the book with YouTube videos and long chats with Claude to get the fundamentals down. The temptation to just drill the questions and blitz past was very tempting.
While the previous two exams were mostly about operating radios, this one goes deeper. Like, physics and electrical engineering deeper. The radio itself dissolves in a fine mist of solder flux smoke and you suddenly stand face to face with the Goddess of Electromagnetism herself. Particles, waves, inductors, capacitors, transistors, and even the dreaded Smith Chart. This test goes hard. The first week felt like I was in way over my head, the second felt the same. It was only in the last 3 days that I felt familiar enough with the concepts to reason through practice exams without guessing.
I also did exactly as prescribed by the Fast Track series, which is to periodically take practice exams on their site every few chapters. Each practice exam reinforces recent concepts while blending older chapters seamlessly. I think a full month is a very comfortable pace, two weeks is tight, 3 might be the goldilocks zone for most people.
I was sweating bullets, partly from the late June heat of North Carolina in an old church classroom packed with dozens of people. Each exam took me 20-30 minutes, I was the last person to leave, but did so after shaking all 3 volunteer examiner's hands for achieving a "Trifecta". The relief was almost enough to buckle my knees. I paid my $35 license fee to the FCC the same night, and received my callsign two days later: NA4DE.
I bought all 3 math books from Fast Track Ham, completed all the exercises for the first one while the other two collect dust. I admit to memorizing the answers to the AE math problems since I didn't leave enough time to drill the formulas into memory. This is my only testing regret. For fully mastering the AE concepts including all the math, a month is ideal. The math for Technician is super easy, and I strongly recommend you work through all of them because they're plug-and-chug algebra equations. For all the exams, you can fail every math question and still pass, but just barely.