Please visit the Practice Ham Exam page first.  Since the actual examination question pools (the actual questions and answers of the examination) are published, and entry level amateur radio Technician license has been rewritten several times to make it easier, many people find classes unnecessary.  

Amateur radio classes have changed dramatically since restructuring.  Prior to restructuring, few people passed licensing exams without classes.  Today classes for many are optional.  In years previous, one was trained to a level akin to an electronics technician in order to pass an exam.  Today most Technicians class license holders pass the exam do not know how to operate a radio, let alone set-up a communications link in a disaster.    These skills are not asked on the tests so they did not study it nor did they seek out this knowledge.  If their purpose was emergency communications, then they have acted in a self-defeating matter.  

Most classes teach the test.  They teach customers how to "beat the test."  Customers are learning shortcuts to merely pass the test.  There are few traditional classes left which teach a sound foundation to understanding radio electronics.  Such a foundation is essential in a major disaster in which a geniune ham will need to be able to independently set-up an emergency communication link without help from ham radio store salesman, manufacturers' technical support, and email listservs.