Prep for the FS exam

[rgonzales]

I’m on the same boat. I need to focus my studying for LSIT exam in Arizona. Don’t know what materials I need or recommended.. let me know if you find anything out

[Native1]

Hi everyone!

My name is Jason and I have taken the FS three times and have not passed it yet. I am planning on taking it again this year. I would like some help to see what textbooks or practice exams would be best to use for studying. I have looked though the topics on this surveyor connect website what you guys recommended textbooks and practice exams.

Textbooks:

• Boundary Control & Legal principles
• Elementary Surveying
• GPS for Land Surveyors
• Pocket Guide to business for Enigneers and land Surveyors
• Surveyor reference Manual

Practice exams:

• Surveying Solved Problems
• NCEES practice Exams
• Fundamentals of Surveying Practice Exam

Are these the materials I need to pass the California FS Exam? or is there more materials that can help?

Thank you in advance

hi Jason, I have my LSIT, in California as well.

The only thing I’d add to your list is the Caltrans study material.

I used that and surveying solved problems, and I feel those two were what helped the most. 
also, what calculator do you have? I learned on an hp35s, and have the d’zine programs. 
they’re very helpful to save time for triangles, intersections, traverse, etc

also to check your work.

 

one of the things I learned from studying is that how you study matters. 
for example, with surveying solved problems:

I do the first math section entirely. Timed. I did that every Saturday morning for two months. 
the thing I realized is that the longer questions that take 20 minutes to solve can be skipped. You’re not going to have a question like that on the FS that takes 15-20 minutes. 
But do as much as the math section as you can and time yourself.

Secondly, I went through each chapter of that book individually and timed myself.

I learned to do the first 3-5 questions from each section, and then skip to the next section. As you may have seen, the book is laid out to get more difficult as you get through more Q’s in each section. So just do the 1st 3-5 then move to the next section of that chapter.

Once you do this, correct yourself on what you get wrong. Take the time to learn how to do what you got wrong correctly 

 

Brush up on terminology.

Use the Caltrans materials to fill in gaps.

 

Are there any areas you are struggling with specifically? I know you get a report back if you don’t pass.

feel free to ask me any other questions

 

 

[Native1]

https://study.centralcoastclsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/LS_LSIT_Manual.pdf

here is the pdf for Caltrans material.

can go through the lessons or just skip to the quizzes at the end of each section. 
the things I learned I needed to tighten up from here were:

standard deviation and SD of the mean (had no idea prior). 

horizontal and vertical curve work. I knew the basics but getting further into it and the equations helps, plus the calculator programs on top of this had me breezing through them in the exam.

intersections and traverses – there’s some good quiz Q’s in here that test your speed and knowledge with the calculator.

 

[protracted]

https://study.centralcoastclsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/LS_LSIT_Manual.pdf

here is the pdf for Caltrans material.

can go through the lessons or just skip to the quizzes at the end of each section. 
the things I learned I needed to tighten up from here were:

standard deviation and SD of the mean (had no idea prior). 

horizontal and vertical curve work. I knew the basics but getting further into it and the equations helps, plus the calculator programs on top of this had me breezing through them in the exam.

intersections and traverses – there’s some good quiz Q’s in here that test your speed and knowledge with the calculator.

 

 

Some more links to the the old CalTrans stuff can be found here, https://github.com/elil/Caltrans.  The videos are a little on the dry side but can be quite helpful. 

 

[michigan-left]

I have taken the FS three times and have not passed it yet.

Maybe you should ask yourself how serious you are about Professional Surveying?

[Norman_Oklahoma]

Are these the materials I need to pass the California FS Exam? or is there more materials that can help?

That is a pretty good list, IMO. But there is always more. Two books you might add are the 2009 BLM Manual and Wattles’ Writing Legal Descriptions.  You won’t be writing legals at the FS stage, but you may be reading and interpreting some.

Other have recommended to old Caltrans videos, which are available on youtube and are worth the time.

[Curiouser]

Keep in mind the FS is a national exam.  It isn’t state specific.

The materials I used the most were the Surveying Solved Problems and Surveyor Reference Manual.  I also watched several of the videos on the Mentoring Mondays website, and used an exam prep manual that Dane Courville created (which I think helped most with the PLSS stuff – I’m from a colonial state so I don’t get much practice with public lands stuff).  I would also recommend making sure you’re familiar with terminology/definition.  I had quite a lot of questions that were mostly comprehension of the concept, and not necessarily computation or word-problem type stuff.  I did not use the practice exam from NCEES; I used the longer one by George Cole.  I photocopied all the answer pages (so I could avoid flipping back & forth) and used it like a study guide.

I will also add that, in my opinion, success on the test is as much mindset as it is technical preparation.  It’s very easy to get worked up and psych yourself out so much that you blank on everything, or second-guess yourself too much.  Make sure you’re tending to your peace of mind and do whatever you need to do to go into the test calmly.  

I took the test in December, and passed on the first try.

[andy-j]

As mentioned, the FS is a national exam, so don’t focus on your state regulations.  

Have you been in or through a college level survey program?   If you gave some of your background it might help guide you on what you are missing.   At NMSU, we took the FS exam our senior year and I don’t recall anyone having any trouble with it at all.   

[Ric-Moore]

As others have said, focus on the NCEES Test Plan Specifications for the FS exam.  This document provides you with the content of the exam, how much each section is covered by the exam, and what to expect.  Many of the study guides don’t focus on the specs like they should.

https://ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/FS-CBT-specs.pdf

[Native1]

@protracted 

the introductions are the best!
the melody just keeps going and going 

[CoastToCoastSurveyor]

@curiouser thanks I appreciate the mention and I am glad to here my stuff worked for you!

D Courville

[OleManRiver]

If you get the ncees information read it read it again read it and highlight important information about the exam itself test day what it will be like.  Then as others have said take the outline they give you on how everything is broken down and graded.  Now you will have a template to guide you through the studying process. Now you can focus. Take one part and spend a couple hours going through all your books and mark them where that specific subject matter is. Then spend a hour each day or night until you have that mastered.  Keep doing this until you have mastered all item sections. You should be able to work a horizontal curve 6 ways to sunday with any question they could ask. Same for a vertical curve. Level notes . Adjust a traverse or boundary by latitude and departure. This is all in elementary surveying books. Know your calculator. If you soend 1 hour a night truly focused on it instead of looking through all the books you should nail the test easily.  Order the 13$ practice exam. About 7 sections if I remember correctly on outline. So 7 weeks you should sit down nothing but a calculator and scratch paper. Work through the practice exam time yourself then grade your self. See what items you missed what amount of time. Then keeping all you know fresh by working a problem every couple days or so. But dive into what you missed and get it down.  A hint Horizontal and vertical curves. When asked any questions like given the radius and length whats the chord or delta angle. Work and solve for all parts of the curve every-time. No matter the question. Also if stationing is part of the given say pc station. Solve the pi pt as well. Same thing goes for vertical curves. If you can take any hz or vertical curve and any given information and solve for all other missing parts you just got several points to passing. Study grid and ground factors. From a given distance or coordinates. Know how to inverse between two points. Compute acreage volumes etc.  know your basic gis information. Know definitions for common boundaries and the public land systems layout and such. Its all about how you study and prepare. 

[jmcnicholspls]

@protracted 

The CalTrans Exam Prep can be found on YouTube at this site PublicResourceOrg.  They are a little difficult to locate so I created a playlist. 

“https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-mzoRg55UjY2zOsH91xMDuxxIVo2dD1_”  (Take the quotes away)

A little dated in some respects but much has not changed.  

[805-surveyor]

It took me 3 times to pass it. First time, I just took it. Second, I studied lightly. Third, I went all in and purchased the NLC prep course/Dane Courvilles reference manual. I studied hard for 4 months and passed. Let me know if there’s anything specific hanging you up… You got this!