The Technician Question Pool, Broken Down by Subelement
Thirty-five questions drawn from thirty-five groups, one each. The distribution is fixed, which means you can aim your study at the points rather than at the pool.
The short answer
The Technician exam draws exactly one question from each of 35 question groups across ten subelements, so the distribution is fixed rather than random. Rules and regulations contributes six questions, electrical principles and electrical components four each, and antennas only two. Understanding the concept behind each group answers whichever of its questions appears, which is far more efficient than memorising all 411.
- Pool size
- 411 questions
- Question groups
- 35
- On the exam
- 35
- To pass
- 26
The Technician exam is not assembled randomly, and understanding how it is put together changes how you should study for it. The pool is divided into ten subelements. Each subelement is divided into groups. Exactly one question is drawn from every group. There are 35 groups and 35 questions on the paper, so the shape of your exam is known before anyone generates it.
Where the 35 questions come from
| Sub | Topic | Questions | What causes trouble |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Commission rules | 6 | Frequency privileges by class, and the difference between the amateur service purpose and the prohibited uses. |
| T2 | Operating procedures | 3 | Repeater offsets and the simplex convention. |
| T3 | Radio wave characteristics | 3 | Multipath, polarisation mismatch and why VHF is not line of sight only. |
| T4 | Station set-up and operation | 2 | Microphone gain versus power output, and what a squelch control actually does. |
| T5 | Electrical principles | 4 | Unit prefixes. More people lose points to milli versus micro than to Ohm law. |
| T6 | Electrical components | 4 | Schematic symbols, and telling a diode from a transistor on a drawing. |
| T7 | Station equipment | 4 | Fault diagnosis questions, and the interference cures. |
| T8 | Modulation modes | 4 | Bandwidth by mode, and satellite terminology such as Doppler and mode designators. |
| T9 | Antennas and feed lines | 2 | SWR values and what feedline loss does to them at the radio. |
| T0 | Electrical and RF safety | 3 | RF exposure evaluation requirements and the antenna and tower questions. |
Two blocks stand out. Rules and regulations is the largest at six questions and also the easiest to score full marks on, because the answers are facts with no reasoning required. Electrical principles and electrical components together are eight questions and are where candidates without a technical background lose the most, not because the material is hard but because it is unfamiliar.
The study tactic for each subelement
| Sub | Questions | Tactic |
|---|---|---|
| T1 Commission rules | 6 | Six questions from six groups means one question per group. Learn the privilege table and this block is nearly free. |
| T2 Operating procedures | 3 | Programme a real radio while studying this and it answers itself. |
| T3 Radio wave characteristics | 3 | The recurring theme is that height beats power. Most answers follow from it. |
| T4 Station set-up and operation | 2 | Two questions. Do not overinvest here. |
| T5 Electrical principles | 4 | Write the prefix ladder from pico to giga once, from memory, before the exam. |
| T6 Electrical components | 4 | Pure recognition. Flashcards are ideal and this is the block they suit best. |
| T7 Station equipment | 4 | The answers are almost always the least dramatic option offered. |
| T8 Modulation modes | 4 | Learn the bandwidth ordering: CW narrowest, then SSB, then FM widest. |
| T9 Antennas and feed lines | 2 | Only two questions, but the material carries straight into General where it is worth four. |
| T0 Electrical and RF safety | 3 | Three questions, all of them describing genuine hazards. Read the safety guides, not just the pool. |
T1: rules, and the table that answers most of it
Six questions, one from each of six groups, covering the purpose of the amateur service, license classes and privileges, station identification, control operator duties, prohibited transmissions and authorised transmissions. Most of it is recall.
The single highest-return thing you can memorise for this subelement is the frequency privilege table for Technician class. Learn that a Technician has all privileges above 50 MHz, Morse code on parts of 80, 40 and 15 metres, and Morse, digital and single sideband on parts of 10 metres at 200 watts maximum, and several questions across T1 fall out of it. The full table is on the Technician page and the band by band picture is on the United States band plan.
The other reliable points are identification and control operator rules. You identify at least every ten minutes during a communication and at the end. The control operator is responsible for the station's transmissions regardless of who is speaking. Third party traffic and international rules generate one question each and are worth reading once.
T5 and T6: the eight questions people fear
Nothing in either subelement is beyond arithmetic you already have. What defeats people is unit prefixes, and it defeats them repeatedly.
Write that prefix ladder from memory once before the exam. A question that gives you 3000 milliamps and asks for amps is testing the ladder rather than the concept, and it is worth exactly as much as any other question on the paper.
Components is recognition rather than reasoning: what a resistor does, what a capacitor stores, what an inductor opposes, which schematic symbol is which, what a fuse is for. Flashcards suit this block better than any other and it can be moved from zero to solid in about two hours.
T9 and T0: small blocks that matter later
Antennas and feed lines contributes only two questions on Technician, which tempts people to skip it. Do not. The same material is worth four questions on General and eight on Amateur Extra, and it is the single most useful subject on the entire exam for anyone who intends to put up an antenna, which is everyone. The dipole length calculator and the SWR calculator cover the concepts behind both T9 groups with real numbers.
Safety is three questions and it is the block worth taking most seriously for reasons entirely separate from the exam. Every question in T0 describes something that genuinely injures amateur operators: RF exposure at close range, contact with overhead power lines during antenna work, tower falls, lead-acid and lithium battery hazards, and improper grounding. Three of the sites in this hobby with the most traffic are the three safety guides here for exactly that reason: RF exposure evaluation, antenna and mast safety and grounding and lightning protection.
A fourteen day schedule that works
- Days 1 to 2. Read the manual straight through at reading speed. Do not stop to memorise anything.
- Day 3. Drill T1 rules. Six questions, all recall. Aim for 100 percent by the end of the session.
- Day 4. Drill T5 electrical principles. Write the prefix ladder from memory before starting.
- Day 5. Drill T6 components. Flashcards. Two hours at most.
- Day 6. Drill T7 station equipment and T4 set-up together. Six questions between them.
- Day 7. Rest, or listen to a repeater with an Nooelec NESDR Smart RTL-SDR bundle and let the vocabulary settle.
- Day 8. Drill T2 operating and T3 propagation. Programme a real radio if you have one.
- Day 9. Drill T8 modulation modes. Learn the bandwidth ordering first.
- Day 10. Drill T9 antennas and T0 safety. Read the safety guides properly rather than the pool answers.
- Days 11 to 13. Full randomised practice exams, cold and timed, one per day. Review every wrong answer immediately.
- Day 14. One more full exam. If it and the two before it were above 85 percent, sit the real one.
What carries forward to General
Roughly a third of the General pool builds directly on Technician material rather than replacing it. Propagation, antennas, feedlines, electrical principles and the rules structure all reappear at greater depth. That is the reason the standard advice is to attempt General within a month of passing Technician, or on the same afternoon: the overlap is at its most useful while the first pool is still fresh.
What does not carry forward is memorised answer letters, because the General pool asks what happens when a variable changes rather than what a term means. If your Technician study was pure drilling, budget the full twenty to thirty hours for General rather than the fortnight that understanding the theory would have bought you. Both routes and their honest tradeoffs are on study materials, and the General distribution table is on the General page.
Common questions
Questions people ask about this
How is a Technician exam actually assembled?
The pool is divided into ten subelements, each split into groups, and exactly one question is drawn from every group. There are 35 groups and 35 questions, so the distribution is fixed rather than random: your exam will always contain exactly six rules questions and exactly two antenna questions. Knowing the distribution tells you where study hours are worth the most.
Which Technician subelement is hardest?
For candidates without a technical background, T5 electrical principles and T6 electrical components, which contribute eight questions between them. Neither requires more than Ohm law, the power formula and recognising schematic symbols, but both are unfamiliar rather than difficult. The most common single cause of lost points across the whole exam is unit prefixes, not concepts.
Do I need to memorise all 411 questions?
No, and trying is inefficient. Because exactly one question comes from each of 35 groups, understanding the concept behind a group answers whichever of its questions appears. Most people who pass comfortably recognise most of the pool and genuinely understand about half of it, which is enough for a comfortable margin above the 26 question pass mark.
How often does the question pool change?
Each element pool is revised on a four year cycle, staggered so that only one element changes in any given year. Revisions add, retire and reword questions rather than restructuring the subelements. Study material must match the current pool, which is the main reason not to buy a used manual from an older edition.
Are the answer options in the same order as the published pool?
No. The questions are drawn verbatim but the four answer options are shuffled on each exam paper. This is why memorising answer letters fails and memorising the correct answer text works. Any practice tool worth using shuffles the options for the same reason.
What score should I be getting before I book the exam?
Above 85 percent on three consecutive freshly randomised practice exams, sat cold with no lookups and no retries. The pass mark is 74 percent, which is 26 of 35, and booking at the pass mark rather than above it is the most common reason a well-prepared candidate fails. The margin absorbs nerves and the handful of questions that always feel unfamiliar.
Keep going
Related on this site
- The Technician exam overview What the license grants and what it costs.
- What to study with Free pools, apps and manuals compared.
- The General exam Where the Technician material carries forward.
- RF exposure evaluation The T0 material, done properly.
- The band plan The table that answers most of subelement T1.
- The $350 starter station What to buy the day you pass.
Keeping your own cut lengths, SWR sweeps and exposure record? The Station Build & Antenna Planner is the paid version of these pages: 8 printable worksheets you fill in with your own numbers, plus the full PDF, $29.
Disclaimer Researched guidance for planning purposes, not professional engineering, electrical or legal advice. Antenna work, RF exposure, mast and tower work, grounding and battery handling all carry real risk that depends on your specific site and installation. Verify anything safety-critical against current FCC rules, the National Electrical Code and the manufacturer's own documentation, and hire a professional where the job calls for one. We research equipment from published specifications, regulatory documents and verified owner reviews rather than claiming hands-on testing we have not done.