Getting ready for the FS

Hi Ryan,

I would add the Manual of Surveying Instructions, by the BLM.?ÿ

I think that is a good list of reference material.?ÿ Can you take some classes with your state surveying society??ÿ In my state we had an unlicensed member (associate) membership and I took as many continuing ed. classes as possible through there.

Can you calculate a boundary without a data collector or PC??ÿ I found the steps to calculating a Compass Rule Adjustment, with only a scientific calculator, to be very beneficial.?ÿ Know how to use your trig., curves and cogo as tools for finding the corners on the ground.?ÿ

Also, if you can't work field surveying at your current job, volunteer to help a local surveyor on the weekends, even without pay.?ÿ The nuances of what makes a boundary line, or property corner are tough to teach in a classroom and first hand practical experience is paramount.?ÿ If you want to learn surveying, show up and work for free (within reason) and the experience will come with it.

?ÿ

@hblair

Yes, and this is a useful addition:

https://www.blm.gov/or/gis/geoscience/files/BLMglossary.pdf

?ÿ

I always recommend that, with the Brown's Books (BC&LP, E&P) that you get early editions to study for the FS. These can be had from online used book sellers for a very few bucks. The latest editions have become more and more bloated as time goes by, IMO. For FS study, the early editions are easier to digest and perfectly valid for general principles.?ÿ

1000 Solved Survey .... was a great resource in it's time. But it's out of date now. It is still being updated and published by it's original author, but under a different name. Look for Surveying Solved Problems, 5th Edition.

General principles of boundary law don't change much over time. Technical subjects related to measurement science do.

You are going to need an understanding of the PLSS. Books focused on Ohio are going to be too specific to be good for a national fundamentals test. Trying to learn about the PLSS from the Manual of Survey Instructions, which is indisputably the bible on the the subject, will be like drinking from a firehose. I have picked up several online things over the years that have been helpful to me. Also bits and pieces from?ÿ various general texts. Things are everywhere on the subject. But I don't have a specific recommendation.

The Caltrans videos are still out there for the googling and are well worth the price.?ÿ?ÿ

I think that the only book I had was the Land Surveyor's Reference Manual, by Andrew Harbin.

And learn to figure the bearing, distance, angle, and slope between point coordinates.

I used these three (older editions) and worked every problem, every chapter, twice. The FS is 8 hours of math so focus your energy on that. There will be a small number boundary questions, and those that are on it will be very broad. Again, math, math, math.?ÿ

?ÿ

https://www.amazon.com/Surveyor-Reference-Manual-George-Cole/dp/1591266483/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=land+surveyors+reference&qid=1605027215&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Surveying-Practice-Exam-George/dp/1591266548/ref=pd_bxgy_img_3/141-8643538-1184461?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1591266548&pd_rd_r=0e999f59-4043-4d48-8b8d-78954e68b7be&pd_rd_w=Kypj4&pd_rd_wg=GX2S6&pf_rd_p=ce6c479b-ef53-49a6-845b-bbbf35c28dd3&pf_rd_r=CBJRWQTDXCG64T2Q45PT&psc=1&refRID=CBJRWQTDXCG64T2Q45PT

https://www.amazon.com/Surveying-Solved-Problems-Jan-Sickle/dp/1591266556/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/141-8643538-1184461?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1591266556&pd_rd_r=0e999f59-4043-4d48-8b8d-78954e68b7be&pd_rd_w=Kypj4&pd_rd_wg=GX2S6&pf_rd_p=ce6c479b-ef53-49a6-845b-bbbf35c28dd3&pf_rd_r=CBJRWQTDXCG64T2Q45PT&psc=1&refRID=CBJRWQTDXCG64T2Q45PT

@hblair

And Restoration of Lost and Obliterated Corners.

Get to know the NCEES website?ÿ https://ncees.org/surveying/fs/

?ÿ

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

Just took both the FS & PS exams earlier this year. Google some of mine & others FS/PS exam posts for the RPLS Today forums. My advice would be this:

?ÿ

Buy the PPI2Pass bundle & spend a good 4-6hours reviewing what the specs are for each exam and which books cover what topics. Then Iƒ??d say at a minimum take 1-2 months & study the practice problems for at least 1 hour or so every other day. Know your calculator well.

?ÿ

In regards to your specific case Iƒ??d highly advise that you shadow a surveyor for another year or so to get the necessary exposure before you start sealing work. I worked with various surveyors for a very long time throughout my career essentially doing boundary, topographic, ALTA surveys, land development & construction staking/as-builts. Iƒ??m coming from an civil engineerƒ??s background before I became licensed as a surveyor but Iƒ??ll be the first to admit that I learn something new almost weekly and thereƒ??s something to be said for the experience a lot of these guys have & are typically happy to share. Become involved in your local surveyors society and continue to read up on this forum to learn more. Ask questions when googling doesnƒ??t yield answers to things you might need more help with

@norman-oklahoma @ryan-lubansky I've got an index of links to the old CalTrans workbook PDFs which are a great resource, https://github.com/elil/Caltrans

@ryan-lubansky, the advice from @ncsudirtman is good.?ÿ I'll add some links to that:

https://surveyorconnect.com/community/education-training/fs-exam-2/

https://surveyorconnect.com/community/education-training/fs-exam-prep-courses/

https://surveyorconnect.com/community/education-training/fs-exam-prep/

https://surveyorconnect.com/community/education-training/calculators/

and I just found this searching old threads but haven't used the material myself, http://www.jerrymahun.com/index.php/home/open-access

?ÿ

Generally your resources and study plan go far beyond the FS and include much of the studying for the PS.?ÿ If you're studying for both exams (or for the PS shortly after the FS), then it is all good studying.?ÿ For just the FS, I would focus on math, knowing your calculator, the practice exams (and solved problems books), and some basic surveying principles.

?ÿ

Taking the FS (and PS) are just some of the steps to becoming licensed.?ÿ If becoming licensed is your goal, you will want to look at your state requirements and how you will attain those as well.?ÿ

?ÿ

Happy studying, Eli

Some stuff that I neglected to mention that helped a lot for me... tab out ALL of the topics that NCEES gives for the FS/PS Exam Specifications. You will find the majority of these topics in either the Surveyor Reference Manual or the book Surveying Solved Problems. This was a crucial step for me to start being able to see where my weakest areas were the week leading up to the exam. I also took off work for a few days before both the PS & FS (granted things were slower then due to COVID regs). I also frequently looked on the Pearson VUE website to see if slots had opened up sooner (got lucky with the PS & took it a month earlier than scheduled).

Buy your books used to save you some money. eBay or Amazon or elsewhere but don't spend full price on something new like I did as the material doesn't really change. I regret now having done so but it's done now. These sites also have a lot off the other books that guys on here recommend & sometimes you can find them for a steal?ÿ

As for calculators, I will gladly admit that RPN calculators like the HP-35s & the older HP-11 or HP-48 that surveyors like to use are superior machines for this type of work. But I'm a millennial (31yrs old now) and unfortunately a product of the public school system & a university that pushed Texas Instrument calculators on us really hard so I was struggling to learn RPN in just a couple weeks while working 60+hours a week with a wife & kid. I eventually gave up on the RPN while studying as I realized I wasn't going to grasp it before exam day for the FS so I took my older TI-30XIIS for the test. Granted, there were certain questions where the canned COGO programs & ease of data entry on a HP-35s would have shined but I was able to use the more cumbersome TI calculator just fine.?ÿ

Regarding PLSS study - this book, "Surveying", by Charles Breed has a chapter on the PLSS that was very useful to me. The rest of the book is rather hopelessly out of date.?ÿ ?ÿ

Posted by: @ryan-lubansky

I am looking for some advice on what I need to study for math since it has been a little while since I have taken a math class but I was always very good at math so I just need a little brush up.

There are quite a number of on-line math courses available, many of them free.?ÿ

@hblair thank you I appreciate it, I just really want to make sure I am cover all the correct material so I can feel confident in what I am studying before I take the exam.

@mark-indzeris Thank you for the advice, when the firm I work for is not busy with office Work I can request going out to do fieldwork but currently we have been slammed so that might be a possibility in the near future. I have not looked into a surveying society yet but I am in the process of becoming a member of PLSO that the firm will pay membership for so going to meetings and meeting others in our profession is a possibility but not sure if they actually cover continued education. also I have not really done any boundary calculations since I graduated but plan on doing a bunch of math before actually taking the exam so I do appreciate the opinion of what to study and have complete understood before going in to take it.

I sat for the test on Nov 13, fourteen days ago. You have received very good recommendations already. I would agree that you might want to spend way more time on math than not. There is such a wide range of question subjects, other than math problems, that it is hard to recommend one or two study books. I used primarily the Solved Surveying Problems and Land Surveyor Reference Manual already mentioned. I would recommend a little scanning of about everything you could imagine, but your main study focus should be working out math problems on the expected subjects-curves, traverses, levels. Cherry pick oddball values as your givens and know how to re arrange the formulas to get what you need. Read and reread the question/givens/dimensions. Know what you are seeing, not what you think you see.

I started studying about ten months out, just at my own leisure, as I had forgotten about all I knew about Trig and circle geometry since I had been in school 13 yrs ago. Two months out I really started bearing down, up at about four thirty every morning for an hour or so study before work, study an hour or two most every night that I could, four or five hours each day of the weekend. I took the NCEES practice test about two weeks out and focused on my problem areas. When that would get tedious, I would just scan other subjects. Look at the NCEES site there is a percentage breakdown of what is on the test. I'd say that it varies test to test, but the one I took was pretty well spot on with that.

I took the day off the day before the test, studied until about 2pm and quit. Layed around and rested, ate a light soup for supper and got a good night sleep. Got up early and fixed a light breakfast. Make sure you get around early enough and have all your gear together in plenty of time to get to the center early. Be aware of your time left and where you are in the test. Time can get away from you if you get bogged down on a question.

It's quite a test. Just go in there and try to relax. You'll be fine.

Spend a few hours researching techniques for studying before settling on an arbitrary study regiment.?ÿ Some of your study habits will be unique to you, but most are dictated by human physiology.?ÿ Doctors, Special Forces operators, Astronauts, etc. use a combination of intense studying and intense physical activity to aid in information retainment.?ÿ Basically, study hard until you begin to lose focus, then push yourself to stay focused for another half hour or so, then go do something that will make you breath hard and sweat.?ÿ Also, clump information into groups of five and learn them all before moving on to another clump of five.?ÿ?ÿ

When you find terms or definitions that you just can't seem to remember, try creating a meaningful story to help you.?ÿ Since the stories or phrases will be private, make them as bizarre as needed.?ÿ "The riparian river otter followed the flow into a littoral lake that was literally as big as a littoral ocean."?ÿ "Bonjour Monsieur Arpent".?ÿ "Hola Se?ñor Vara".?ÿ ?ÿ

?ÿ