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.
You also need to purchase practice exams that match the current exam. I have some from 1990 that are great for teaching techs. They are all but useless for FS exam prep.
Good luck, Tom
The 1 man crews don't help but it seems to me guys are so busy making money they don't really want to mentor anyway. I've heard plenty a PLS say they'd like to find another 1-man army PLS so they could take on more projects, not so much someone to show how to do things the right way.
I took the PS 9 days ago. 2 days ago I received an email stating that I passed. Also took the PA state-specific exam 4 days ago, and while checking out of the testing center, received a printout saying I passed.
The only updated practice test is the one directly from NCEES. The rest I recommend going through them anyways but they are pretty outdated and just serve to refresh the formulas and general concepts, it is no longer that test where you 'need to find the inverse of 2 pts'. The horizontal curve exercises on the test are mind blowing and if you go in with the mentality of just applying formulas to solve them with a programmed calculator you're going to fail. A few weeks before I took mine I drew a horizontal curve in AutoCAD and just played with dimensioning angles from any conceivable angle and solving crazy problems made on my own, because really, none of the practice test had the same level of difficulty of COGO or horizontal curve problems like the actual test.
The PS was a much easier test though. My advise, go through the NCEES practice test and reinforce it with the Reference Manual. The FS is the hardest one.
Back when I took the exams ('97-'98) there was the "1001" and "Land Surveyor in Training Sample Exam" books, which were immense help to me. There were other sample exam books which I used - noteably the NCEES version - but they just didn't have the breadth of questions to truly prepare me.
Today there is Surveying Solved Problems for the FS and PS Exams (which replaces 1001) and Fundamentals of Surveying Sample Exam ?ÿ(which replaces Land Surveyor in Training Sample Exam).?ÿ Not cheap. It's an investment.
It sounds like you relied on a single book for your studying. Get Brown's 2 books as well. I tell people to get early Curt Brown editions of Boundary Control & Legal Principles and Evidence and Procedure for Boundary Location. These can be had for around $5, plus shipping. After you have those under your belt go for the latest Walt Robbilard editions.?ÿ ?ÿ
I think Brown's books would be useful for the PS, but not for the FS.
I rented the Browns books when I was in school and I chose not to keep them at the time because there was a huge number of typos in them. It was truly strange, like they did absolutely no editing. I kind of regret it now since they'd be nice to have on-hand. I'll have to poke around the web and see if I can get some used copies for cheap.
I felt the same way when I was done.?ÿ Like me, you might be pleasantly surprised when you actually get your results.?ÿ Keep your head up!
The writing is pretty horrendous too. They are good resources, but if I had a dollar for everytime?ÿ someone misapplied something in one of those books, failed to look up pertinent case law, or applicable statutes that contradicted Brown's general principles....
As far as difficulty goes, I thought the FS exam I took was much more challenging than the national PS exam. I was thoroughly unsure if I had passed or not even though I finished early on both morning and afternoon sessions. I have yet to figure out why I spent so much useless effort second-guessing myself after the exam, but I did.
I agree with Gochnour44, you may indeed be surprised with the results when you receive them.
