The FCC Extra Exam (Element 4) consists of 50 questions, you are required to get over 74% (37 out of 50) for a passing grade. There are ten subelements, E0-E9, and the full exam consists of questions from each subelement (and from each of the topic groups within each subelement).
Current Question Pool: 602 Questions, Effective July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2028
Extra Exam Subelements
The Extra exam has questions that cover the following topics (subelements)
- E0: Electrical and RF Safety
- E1: FCC Rules, station license responsibilities
- E2: Operating Procedures
- E3: Radio Wave Propagation
- E4: Amateur Radio Practices
- E5: Electrical Principles
- E6: Circuit Components
- E7: Practical Circuits
- E8: Signals and Emissions
- E9: Antennas and Feed Lines
Recommended Supporting Materials
The exam prep provided here is great for practicing to pass the exam. That being said, I would also strongly recommend that you strive to understand the broader theory and practical applications that lie behind the questions. This will make answering the exam questions easier in the short term but perhaps more importantly will enable you to get more from the hobby once you are on the air. To that end I’ve listed below a few popular books that might be of help to you.
The ARRL Extra Class License manual (13th Ed.) gets consistently excellent reviews on Amazon and provides a great introduction to the theory and materials you’ll need to know, plus it introduces the relevant exam questions as you work through the chapters.
Craig Buck’s Pass your Amateur Extra Class Test the Easy Way also gets very good reviews and has a nice process for walking you through the background material, then honing in on the questions and the specific answers. This is very helpful, particularly for the Extra with its more in-depth technical questions.
