The New Amateur Extra-class Question Pool has been released

The New Amateur Extra-class Question Pool has been released and will be effective beginning July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2028. The 2024 – 2028 pool is available as a Microsoft Word document and as a PDF. The 10 graphics required for the new Extra-class question pool are available within the documents or separately in PDF and JPG file formats. ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, and member of the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (NCVEC) Question Pool Committee (QPC), said, “The new pool incorporates significant changes compared to the 2020 – 2024 version. We carefully went over the pool for technical accuracy, relevancy to today’s amateur radio practices, syntax, grammar, style, format, and clarity and redundancy within and between the pools. With these goals in mind, 82 new questions were created, and 101 questions were eliminated, resulting in a reduction [of] the number of questions from 622 to 603. Over 350 questions were modified. We considered a question modified when the knowledge being tested was not changed but wording was improved, or answers or distractors were replaced.” Somma advised that “the newly revised pool must be used for Extra-class license exams starting July 1, 2024. New test designs will be available to ARRL Volunteer Examiners (VEs) on that date. The ARRL VEC will supply its officially appointed, field-stocked VE teams with new Extra-class exam booklet designs around mid-June.”