To be granted a Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, you must pass the Element 4 examination. The Element 4 Exam consists of 50 questions selected randomly from a pool of about 800 questions. Element 4 is broken down into 9 subelements E1 to E9 which cover different aspects of Amateur Radio skills. Within each subelement, there are groups of question. One question is drawn from each group. Therefore, there are 50 groups of questions. The number of questions within each subelement varies, because some aspect of Amateur Radio are considered more important for proper operations once you obtain your license.

The General class exam covers the following topics:

Subelement E1 - Commission's Rules (7 questions)

Subelement E2 - Operating Procedures (5 questions)

Subelement E3 - Radio wave Propagation (3 questions)

Subelement E4 - Amateur Radio Practices (5 questions)

Subelement E5 - Electrical Principles (9 questions)

Subelement E6 - Circuit Components (5 questions)

Subelement E7 - Practical Circuits (7 questions)

Subelement E8 - Signals and Emissions (4 questions)

Subelement E9 - Antennas and Feed-lines (5 questions)