Analysis of New Question Bank for License Examination
Following is an analysis of the differences between the old question bank and the new question bank that will be used for the Amateur Radio License Certification Test staring in July 2025. Thanks to the Birdman:
Most topic areas have a few re-worded questions and a few new questions, but seem to me to be about 80%-90% the same as before (especially the 007-XXX-XXX and 008-XXX-XXX questions).
In the 001-XXX-XXX and 002-XXX-XXX questions there are still a few of the “which of the following is NOT correct…” type questions, contrary to what I thought I’d heard, but at least they’re written as “NOT correct”, so it’s a bit harder to miss the “not” part (caught me out more than a few times while practising).
The biggest changes are in the 003-XXX-XXX questions, especially those concerning parts of transmitters, receivers and HF systems. With the ‘old’ questions you need to know the names and order of the components that make up a given type of transmitter or receiver (like a flowchart of who’s connected to whom), thus a typical question would ask something like “in a SSB receiver, the output of the ___________ is connected to the product detector”. With the new questions, you need to know the function of the components that make up a given type of transmitter or receiver. Like, “in an FM receiver, what is the purpose of the limiter?” With how I learned the relevant material, I wouldn’t be able to pass those new questions 😬.
Other questions have been reworded and several digital systems questions have been added. All in all, this makes the 003-XXX-XXX section quite a bit different from before.
In the 001-XXX-XXX and 002-XXX-XXX questions there are still a few of the “which of the following is NOT correct…” type questions, contrary to what I thought I’d heard, but at least they’re written as “NOT correct”, so it’s a bit harder to miss the “not” part (caught me out more than a few times while practising).
The biggest changes are in the 003-XXX-XXX questions, especially those concerning parts of transmitters, receivers and HF systems. With the ‘old’ questions you need to know the names and order of the components that make up a given type of transmitter or receiver (like a flowchart of who’s connected to whom), thus a typical question would ask something like “in a SSB receiver, the output of the ___________ is connected to the product detector”. With the new questions, you need to know the function of the components that make up a given type of transmitter or receiver. Like, “in an FM receiver, what is the purpose of the limiter?” With how I learned the relevant material, I wouldn’t be able to pass those new questions 😬.
Other questions have been reworded and several digital systems questions have been added. All in all, this makes the 003-XXX-XXX section quite a bit different from before.