In article , Aaron Jones
writes:

I think the present Extra test is much harder than that General was then as
far
a *technical questions* are concerned.

I disagree!

The old tests required some understanding of the material. The new ones are
like the Susquehanna River - a mile wide and a foot deep.

However the current ham tests are
easier
to memorize and pass without knowing anything. I will admit that as a high
school student I was able to pass the General test in 1958 without knowing
much...

About 1964, the years are blurring together, incentive licensing
degraded my general and I took the Advanced.

Late 1968.

Yep, did the same thing, although somewhat later than you. A guy by the name
of
Bash got me going. Seems he published a book with the *exact* questions and
answers for the exams. Everyone seemed to think that was cheating at the
time.
How things change...

It *was* cheating. Here's why:

At the time, the exams were secret. The exact Q&A were kept locked up by FCC.
"By mail" exams required that the volunteer examiner certify that s/he would
not copy or divulge the contents to anyone. The Advanced and Extra weren't
available by mail at all. You had to wait 30 days to retest because the
question pools weren't very big.

The FCC published a study guide of essay questions that gave a good indication
of the subject matter on the test, but not the exact Q&A.

What Dick Bash did was to ask people coming out of FCC exams what the exact
questions and answers on the test were. He paid for the information.

Some folks in the FCC wanted to prosecute him, but the top dogs said no. A few
years later, FCC turned the whole testing process over to the VECs, saving
themselves a lot of time and money.

But at the time Bash did his thing, it was clearly cheating.

73 de Jim, N2EY