On a first pass with no study 40% is very good.

The problem with these tests is that a bunch of the questions are simply things that must be memorized....frequency allocations, FCC rules etc. A bunch is practical electrical knowledge and safety. It is pretty hard to score high without some study, so I think you did great.

There are 300 questions in the pool....many are slight variations of each other, so if you take the test say 5-6 times you will probably start scoring high enough to almost pass the test for sure.

Many radio groups offer up study training....hard cramming followed by the test and that works great. I took my test in the days before the internet and just read the book "Now Your Talking" and studied the question pool. Passed the test easily....I had to do 5WPM morse code and that I passed but just barely.

Now with no code and internet tests anyone should be able to get their license in just a few hours of work.

I never got my ham license for long range communications, but did so only for local emergency use. I have never found a more useful skill.

My wife got licensed a few years ago and now we can communicate from my workplace to hers via simplex or repeater. We both volunteer in a local RACES group and serve as EOC radio operators in our community. Rewarding, useful, adds a measure of certaintly to our communications with each other, and serves the community. All good.

40%....take it again I bet you score higher.