Took the CA state specific exam a few weeks ago. I personally thought it was a beast of a test. 4 hours flew by. Time was just my biggest battle. I probably only used my binder a handful of times and was never able to go back to fully check all my answers. On a lighter note, the material was practical and straight forward. A lot of boundary related questions which I felt good about. How's everyone else feeling??ÿ
When I took it, there was no such thing as the National exam. The California exam was comprised of 10 problems in 8 hours and it was virtually impossible to finish. It also took 3-4 months to get the results and was only given once a year. Depending on the outcome, shortly after the results arrived it was time to start studying again. Fortunately, I got through it on my second attempt.
Eric, if you could do it over again, what would you study/do differently? A guy I know got disappointing results from the April exam and has over a decade of experience.
@plumbbob-2 I spent a lot of time on photogrammetry, gps, and the california coordinate system. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't spend much time in those areas. I would focus on the SMA, LS Act, CA civil codes, browns, wattles, PLSS, and maybe a little more time on construction calcs. These are just a few areas that come to mind. Time was the biggest challenge for me. Read the call of the question and go with your gut. In my opinion, there wasn't enough time to rely on your binder/reference material for more than a handful of questions. I would thin out my binder to just the guts of what I may need to verify if I get stuck on something. Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out if any more questions arise.
Cheers,
Eric
