It was the hardest exam I've ever taken. I thought I was prepared. I was not.
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Better luck next time!
Keep at it friend.
I wouldn't want to build false hope, but more than one person has said that and actually passed...
The first exam I sat for was directed for people with TxDot background and I was lost as to what they were asking. My computations appeared correct, the terminology needed for my resulting report was a total disaster.
Good luck and never stop your studies as licensure is only the first step in your professional career.
In these days of computer delivered exams they give the results on the spot. No more 10-12 weeks of anxious waiting.
The "receipt" I got upon leaving the exam site told me 7-10 business days.
Of course it has been nearly 20 years now but I must be an anomaly as I thought the FLS was easy. Hydrology on the other hand was a different matter.
For the FS and PS you will get results via email 7 days after the exam.
For the FAA Part 107, you get your grade upon exciting the exam screen on the PC. IMO, the is the way it should be for all I exams. NY State specific strung me out for 3 months.?ÿ
I thought I had failed for sure, as the surveyors I knew were discussing their answers at the break were all different than mine.?ÿ I passed and they did not.?ÿ So ya never know.?ÿ?ÿ
I scheduled a seat for the PS exam yesterday.?ÿ I'm not sure what to think about that one.?ÿ I ordered the practice exam for it a couple weeks ago and blew through it pretty fast, without doing any sort of review, and got 15 of the 50 wrong.?ÿ Assuming it's 70% or better like the FS I guess it could be worse.
I felt the same. I consider myself pretty strong with survey math but I still got my butt kicked by it. I thought I surely failed but got the ??Passed? notification about 2 weeks later. ?ÿ(My coworker felt the same). Keep the fingers crossed, and if not, you??ll get it next time.?ÿ
30 years ago when I sat for the EIT I said the same thing.?ÿ I had been out of college for 10 years and was SURE I hadn't passed.?ÿ I made a 71.?ÿ I have never been so proud of a 71 in my life.
IF you didn't pass it isn't the end of the world, you'll have the experience of having taken it and some knowledge of what is expected.?ÿ Keep at it and you'll get there.
Andy
It was the hardest exam I've ever taken. I thought I was prepared. I was not.
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Better luck next time!
I thought I failed my first attempt. I had the green light a week later. Hang in there.
From what I understand and how I read NCEES's website is that you have to pass each section and not just get a 70 per say (and I think the passing grade is lower than that tbh)
Regardless of that, the results should be instantaneous. Part of me thinks they hold the scores back to keep that 'mysticism' in the testing experience.
If you have any office time under your belt, the PS will prove to be easier.
All I remember from my Hydrology class was head of water and Q in has to equal Q out.
I took it a couple of months ago, I'm pretty sure I blacked out for about 15 minutes at the beginning.?ÿ Once I calmed down some and started through the questions it went fairly quick.?ÿ There were definitely some curve balls thrown in there.?ÿ I was on the fence as to if I had passed or not, when I received the email stating that my test results could be reviewed my heart sank.?ÿ Seeing the green box with passed in it was an amazing feeling.
I found the EIT to be much easier than the SIT exam.?ÿ About 25 years ago, a friend and I went down to Huntsville to take the EIT because my home state doesn't recognize technology degrees.?ÿ My friend is MUCH smarter than I am.?ÿ However, I am very good at multiple guess exams.?ÿ I spent less than 2 hours on each section while my friend took pretty much the whole time.?ÿ I lucked out and passed (as did my friend when he tried again later).?ÿ Spent much of the afternoon session drinking beer at Hooters with another guy from college, who just threw in the towel on the exam early.
When I went for the SIT exam, I started working the first problem and my calculator went completely out - not batteries, just died.?ÿ So I spent the first four hours doing long hand math and estimating trig function values from memory.?ÿ Boy was that a stressful exam.?ÿ Grabbed a new calculator at lunch break ----- and not a single need for calculation in the whole afternoon section!!!!?ÿ I was sure I failed, but somehow squeaked out a passing grade.
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Good advice for all the young up and coming surveyors Andy:
"IF you didn't pass it isn't the end of the world, you'll have the experience of having taken it and some knowledge of what is expected. Keep at it and you'll get there."?ÿ?ÿ And I would add - with additional experience gained while waiting to retake, you'll have more knowledge and experience which should help make it easier.
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I took the exam 24 years ago. At the time, due to my 13 years of experience I was able to take the SIT, PLS and State portion all at the same time.?ÿ On two consecutive days. I passed the SIT 81%, the PLS 82% on my first try. 70% was passing. I did not pass the state portion on my first try, but passed on my second attempt.
This was pre-internet for me and I ordered most of my study materials from the back of POB magazine. I studied, studied, studied. I consider myself normal to just maybe a hair above normal intelligence. I hear of so many candidates who take these exams 3, 4 or more times before passing if they pass at all. Are the exams that much more difficult or are the candidates under educated, under experienced and under prepared?
Our profession has changed. 1 man crews limit mentoring, and that has to be part of the issue. Another major change is decoupling the exams from the application. We no longer filter ahead of the SIT. That means a lot of folks taking it that wouldnt have gotten in the door before. IMO that's a good thing. Some who would never have gotten a chance are rewarded those who fail now know what they lack..
I can tell you my experience.
I minored in math, but I hadn't taken an exam in over a decade. A lot of the math (save the vertical curves, spherical triangles, and spirals) was incredibly basic and I'm embarrassed that I forgot what the equation of an ellipse looked like, how to create a matrix to solve a system of equations, and how to take derivatives of trig functions. So I wouldn't say that I am under-educated - just rusty.
As far as experience goes, maybe. I've only been in surveying for 6+ years, but I feel like I was fairly proficient with my job duties as a chief and now as a CAD tech. When I go back to study to retake the exam, I'm going to heavily review basic math and give a lot of attention to characteristics of GIS/related concepts. I use GIS almost every day in the office, but I don't think about what kinds of metadata I'm dealing with or if it's vector or raster based.
Under-prepared? Definitely. I read the Surveyor Reference Manual cover to cover and worked many of the sample problems. I also worked through three practice exams I was able to get my hands on. I could have done a lot more, and given that the problems on the actual exam weren't represented well by the practice problems, I should have done a lot more. But now I know and I will be better prepared on my next attempt.
Also, just in general, I didn't realize what a crutch the access to information we have now is. If I had 10 seconds on the google machine for each problem, then I would have passed no question. So part of my preparation for my next attempt will be to practice problems without referencing anything outside of the reference sheets given so that I know what I need to work on committing to memory.
