Extra Exam

[jgallaher]

Good morning,

I recently picked up the latest ARRL Extra Class manual to study for my final license upgrade. I was just wondering what had changed since the previous edition? I know this past summer there was a lot of worry from a few operators about getting the exam done before the revisions went into effect.

'73 James

 

[mrdinks]

The questions change. People panic because they have been studying the old questions and if they don't pass they will have to start over studying the new ones.
I am a VE and have looked through some tests and don't see anything to awful.

Sent from my Samsung

 

[vagrant]

I studied for the previous Extra exam, but never took it (apathy). I'm working on the new one and it appears that there are more questions about propagation, antenna stuff, and digital. I believe overall the new question pool is larger, but I don't recall by how much.

There are a few other items that are new which improved my knowledge after some research. The new questions about digital play to a strength for me.

Twice I have made contacts out of privilege by accident, so I want to avoid that. Otherwise, the General privileges have served me well. (No OO cards, I just caught it when I went to log it and realized the freq)

 

[Sporrt]

A small percentage of the question pool is changed every four years. The question pools are public knowledge.

https://hamexam.org/

 

[AK9R]

For clarification...

The Amateur Radio exam question pools are prepared by the Question Pool Committee of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators. The current QPC consists of five members, each from a different VEC. The question pools are good for four years and the current Extra pool took effect on July 1, 2016. The un-adulterated question pools can always be found on the NCVEC web site here.

 

[W5JG]

Several years ago, I also used the ARRL study guide for my Extra. I like how it breaks up the material into small sections, with a quiz at the end.

I am not a fan of the "just study the questions" method, especially at the General and Extra level. There are too many Amateurs who don't know which end of a hot soldering iron to hold.

There are web sites where you can take practice exams. I found these useful, in addition to studying the material. The practice exams can tell you where you need more study.

When I prepared for my Extra, I was worried about remembering all the formulas, so I worked hard on those. When I got my exam, I found that there were almost no math/formula questions. I believe they prepare four different exams. I got lucky.

Good luck on your exam. Oh, and after you pass, you can apply for a cool vanity call. Mine is my initials

 

[jgallaher]

Thanks for the replies. I'm working through it, the part that has me hung up on right now is some of the math. For example, I can't figure out the calculation. I understand order of operations, parentheses, etc. I start with the left and get 940,000, then calculate 50 times 6 divided 10. Then multiply both, but that's obviously not right.

t= RC = (940 x 10 power of 3) x (50 x 10 negative exponent -6 F) = 47 seconds.

 

[W5JG]

You got the first part correct. 10^3 = 1000 (also can be written as 10e3).

You messed up the next part, which is a negative exponent. 10e-6 = 0.00000x, or micro.
10e-3 is milli
10e-6 is micro
10e-9 is nano
10e-12 is pico

So, the formula above is saying 940K Ohms times 50 micro Farad.

 

[jgallaher]

Ok. Still a little unclear, but I looked up a great Amateur Radio video series done by David Casler. The YouTube link is:

Amateur Extra Ham Radio License: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0R9jy9LZw_3CHCH-5A8faeIA-H3e4ZNC

 

[N0IU]

...the part that has me hung up on right now is some of the math.

One thing to keep in mind is that while there will be 50 questions on your test, you can miss up to 13 questions and still pass. So if you are weak on math, it is not the end of the world! You could (theoretically) miss all of the math questions and still pass the test as long as you do well on the other sections.

 

[jgallaher]

Oh yeah I know, but I'd like to try to understand it as much as possible. I think I'm getting the math right now. I was subtracting and not using the sign change.

(1x10 6th power) x (450 x 10 -6th power) = 450 seconds. From the left I get 1,000,000. Then 450 x 10-6 = 450,000,000 or just 450.

 

[MyOwnThinkTank]

Oh yeah I know, but I'd like to try to understand it as much as possible.

You might like the current Gordon West guide from your library. West seems to address the questions in terms of the calculator functions to get to the answer, which actually helps make the process be more easily understood, at least to me.

 

[ko6jw_2]

I have a friend that has failed the Extra exam numerous times. He tries to memorize the questions with little understanding of the underlying math and theory. This is not a good approach. If you have a basic knowledge of electronics you will be able to pass the exam regardless of the question pool changes. If you don't want to study theory, don't expect to pass the Extra exam.

 

[majoco]

Easy to get led astray by the poor representation of the powers of 10 which admittedly are hard to do on a computer keyboard.
The usual way to show them is 10^3 and 10^-6. You should recognise that 10^3 is one thousand (3 noughts) as in kilo and 10^-6 is a millionth as in micro
Therefore the answer to the original question - (940 x 10^3) is 940,000, (50x10^-6) is 0.000050. Multiply the two together and you get 47.0 seconds - you got the answer right in the first place!