>>558091Download the question pool.
http://www.arrl.org/question-poolsThose are exactly what you'll see on the test - they pull questions from that pool to put on the test. Learn the answers, not the letter to the answer, because the letters will change but the questions and answers are word-for-word.
AA9PW.com has a good practice test, to get you familiar with what you'll see on the exam. Take that till you consistently pass. The exam itself isn't too scary. Go in, pay the $14 or whatever, they'll hand you the paperwork, fill it out, take the test, hand it back in and they'll tell you if you passed or not.
Most VEC's (organization of volunteers that administers the tests) will let you test for the next class up for no additional fee - if you're good and know your shit, you can go from no-license to extra in one day for one $14 fee. Hell of a lot cheaper than just about anything else the FCC issues, commercial can run upwards of $100 from some COLEMs.
There are books that'll go a little deeper into the theory and technical details behind the questions on the amateur exam, but they're definitely not necessary.
If you have a radio, dial into an amateur repeater and listen for a while. Some of the operation questions (when and how to ID, for example) you'll pick up from that easier than just remembering the formalities from the question pool.
Amateurs ID at the end,
>[station you're calling], [station you're calling], [your callsign]where commercial usually ID's at the beginning.
>[my callsign/ID], [station i'm calling], message>"Yup, catch you later. WQ--no, wrong callsign, K7...yeah"or
>"Disregard last message, wrong radio. [Appropriate callsign]."Fun stuff.
