35 years ago today I sat for my LS exam in California.
Halloween day, 1981.
It was an all day long written exam, in Redding, Ca. I chose that site because when I applied because I was in the process of moving from Wren, Oregon to Sonoma County, California and the time schedule was uncertain.
I had reviewed all of the past exams and was ready. This year was different. It was all essay, no multiple choice, and all true boundary survey: no lengthy vertical curve or state plain calculations. Probably about 10 or 15 total questions, 8 hour time limit.
I was in heaven! It was the stuff I had been doing at work for the preceding 3 or 4 years with great mentors. However it was like the toughest day at work I had ever had... not able to ask questions or sleep on it, but it was open book.
A few guys (I remember zero women) came in with a bookshelf on a hand truck. Really! I saw one at a table near me frantically searching the whole time. I am sure he failed, there simply was not enough time for that, you had to actually know the material.
At the end of the day I had a 6 hour drive home, I was doubtful of course, but I Knew that I Knew the correct answers, and was pretty darn sure I had properly explained it in my mini essays.
In April of 1982 I got my results. Pass! #5116!
actually I got a "unofficial" phone call a week or so before from one of the exam review committee members saying that I had passed, but I still had some doubt.
I took the exam in the fall also, but I'm thinking it was one year later that you. The "Engineering Building" had two large exam rooms, one for the PE folks and one for the LS folks. As was the procedure back then the doors would close (I think at 7:30 AM), roll was taken and them the proctors would administer the exams.
It was a cold and rainy morning. Not thirty seconds after the doors were closed someone knocked. The proctor opened the door and there stood a young man, soaking wet with his two-wheeled dolly full of soaking wet reference material. He apparently had a flat tire a few blocks away and just grabbed his stuff and ran though the rain. The proctor had to turn him away.
I can still remember the look on that guy's face. I felt bad for him, but what could you do? I never knew his name. Hope he made it to the next one.
One fellow sitting at the same table as me was obviously a native American. We got to chat during the break and he worked for the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribe here in Oklahoma. We stayed in contact and later realized our license numbers followed our seating arrangement at the exam. He worked his entire career for the tribe and we shared records information back and forth over the years.
He retired a few years ago....I should've gone to work for the USPS back then....;)
I was four years behind you, in Georgia. Ours was an eight hour exam also, problem solving in the morning and essay in the afternoon. I wrote as fast as I could write for four hours. I was physically tired after that day. The next morning I was in a deer stand and killed a large none point. It turned out to be a great weekend all around. Then four years later I took the EIT, the absolute hardest exam I have ever taken.
Andy
Andy Bruner, post: 397753, member: 1123 wrote: The next morning I was in a deer stand and killed a large none point....
Andy
We call those 'does' up here Andy....;)
Mine was in 1979 - a rainy day in, of all places, an elementary school cafeteria in the Sunset in San Francisco. The sound of rustling pages by the engineers was a mild distraction. Kinda brought back memories of grade school exams - on steroids!
I took my exam in the fall of 1984. It wasn't a cake walk, but I came out of it fairly confident that I had passed. To this day I don't know how much of my passing score was due to knowledge and how much was due to sheer dumb luck, but it doesn't really matter, I passed in any case.
Perhaps the strangest part the experience was my decision not to drink the night before the exam so that I'd be clear-headed in the morning. I don't know how many years it had been since I had spent an evening without having a beer (or six or eight). It was a little bit eerie. It would be another four years before I would decide to forego alcohol altogether, but that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
I sat for the Wi exam in 1977. I remember it clearly because my HP 45 ran out of juice and no-one was allowed to plug in. I asked the proctor and was denied. Shortly thereafter she walked by my desk and casually picked up the charger and calculator and disappeared only to return with 45 minutes left in the session, where she quietly set it down without stopping. During this time I set up all the math and even got out the slide rule and started using it. On occasion I think about this Saint and say a prayer on her behalf.
Jim Frame, post: 397760, member: 10 wrote: I took my exam in the fall of 1984. It wasn't a cake walk, but I came out of it fairly confident that I had passed. To this day I don't know how much of my passing score was due to knowledge and how much was due to sheer dumb luck, but it doesn't really matter, I passed in any case.
I wrote and graded two questions for that exam. Can you guess which two?
I also have my copy of the 1972 exam that I was allowed to take home.
Dave Lindell, post: 397808, member: 55 wrote: Can you guess which two?
I can't recall a single question from that exam!
Peter Ehlert, post: 397737, member: 60 wrote: 35 years ago today I sat for my LS exam in California.
Do you think you could pass it today? I might be able to if I were allowed to bring a desktop computer with me.;) (with wifi)
Peter Ehlert, post: 397737, member: 60 wrote: Halloween day, 1981 ..... In April of 1982 I got my results.
That is a long time to be left twisting in the wind. I had to wait about 10 weeks or so, and it was one of the longest 10 weeks of my life.
FL/GA PLS., post: 397823, member: 379 wrote: Do you think you could pass it today? I might be able to if I were allowed to bring a desktop computer with me.;) (with wifi)
the same exam? yes.
the current exam, I have no idea
