You’ll feel far more relaxed when taking the ham radio licensing exam if you’re comfortable with the materials you’ll be using. Following are examples of the forms used in the exam and how the test questions look and how to answer them properly. Nobody likes surprises on test day!
Answer sheet
This blank answer sheet is what you’ll use when you take any licensing exam certified by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC). Exams from other VECs are similar. Download and practice taking an exam with this sheet so that you’ll be familiar with it on test day.
Typical technician test questions
Here are two typical questions from the Technician exam. The second question refers to a simple schematic shown in the figure. The complete question pools for all three license exams are available from the National Council of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC).
T2B10 — What is the Q signal used to indicate that you are receiving interference from other stations?
A. QRM
B. QRN
C. QTH
D. QSB
The answer is A. You would draw a solid black circle over A on the answer sheet for that question.
T6C02 — What is component 1 in figure T1?
A. Resistor
B. Transistor
C. Battery
D. Connector
The answer is A. You would draw a solid black circle over A on the answer sheet for that question.
Application for license
After you pass your exam, you’ll happily fill out a form like this one, to be signed by the Volunteer Examiners (VEs).
