The Novice theory test I took in 1982, before the era of public question pools, was 20 questions long. It had very little to do with what I was going to be allowed to do on the air in my little slivers of CW spectrum, but it was what the FCC thought I should know in order to start being a ham. Objectively speaking, the test was incredibly easy. I had gotten all nervous studying and expecting the test to be hard. I had avoided science and math in school as much as possible and was not at all sure I could do this ham radio thing. So the test itself was not hard but the circumstances surrounding it were difficult *for me*. Today's Technician test is much more demanding than the Novice test I took way back then. The syllabus is more diverse and the questions are more closely keyed to what a new ham is permitted and expected to do on the air. The entry-level test today is no easier than the one I took in 1982 and in terms of the volume of material that must be mastered, one could say that the test today is harder. My mentor in ARRL stuff was Hugh Turnbull W3ABC. Hugh had college degrees in physics and E.E., was a P.E., and got his ticket back in the 1930s. His code speed was stratospheric. He knew I was technically challenged and he knew my code speed was not so hot. But never once did he make any disrespectful or sarcastic remarks about how underwhelming my technical and Morse code qualifications were, compared to his. I never heard him make such remarks about other new hams, either. He often said that good hams were those who gave something back to the hobby. Hugh loved to complain about this and that, as you who served with him on the Board are well aware, but grade-A griper that he was -- he was not a snob towards those of us who came along later, took the modern kind of tests, pounded the brass a lot slower, and brought different kinds of knowledge and experience to give to ham radio. His self-esteem, to use the current buzzword, was not based on constantly convincing himself he was be tter than people like me. What matters is not the details of the exams we pass but what we are willing to give to ham radio and through ham radio. That was good enough for an old-time ham like W3ABC and it still sounds right to me. 73 - Kay N3KN