Good afternoon,
The other State that accepted my application, aside from Colorado, was the State of Idaho. Like Colorado, Idaho provides a study outline packet.
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Any hints, tips, additional reference material, or even contact info for someone well versed in Idaho's?ÿ
Laws & Code governing surveying would be extremely helpful.
Print the laws and rules book from the IPELS website. Tab it and be familiar. Know your way around the manual. There is also a 'land surveyor manual' on the IPELS site under publications. You won't have a ton of questions from it, but you will want to know it before working here. Know the very basics of State Plane Coordinates. You won't need to worry about intense calculations but have your daily driver (NCEES approved) calculator.
If you want to chat off-line just e-mail me at the address in my profile. Best of luck..
Thank you! I will definitely contact you.
When I did the test a couple years ago it was a take-home thing. I thought I heard that went away and now it's done in a testing center like the FS and PS. Is that true?
@bstrand We switched to proctored for a few reasons. The failure rate on the takehome was terrible, and many licensees were unprepared to work in Idaho. The change helped with both.
The test is not offered at test centers. The new organization offers it at the license supercenter in Boise. We had proctor agreements with several States but I believe they are all gone now..
@thebionicman I tried to pull up your email, but your profile doesn't show up. Maybe I'm doing something wrong...
How was the exam, I am in the middle of appling and they sent me this
"The exam is 20 questions specific to land surveying. Most review the 2009 BLM manual. The exam is open-book. You will want a calculator as there are 4 map questions.
Please review the below link, as Idaho does not test on Statute and rules, however there is information regarding Idaho law.
Statue and Rules of Idaho https://dopl.idaho.gov/ipels/ "
It wasn't as intricate as I expected it to be. There are pitfall questions, however, I think anyone who is a relatively qualified surveyor that has studied the BLM manual with some depth should pass this exam.
@thebionicman Are you implying people actually failed the ID take home? I thought it was the easiest one ever back in the day.
Haha! You funny. I had the exam proctored in Nevada. The Board gave me the impression it was a comprehensive exam, then I go to take it, and find out it wasn't quite as comprehensive as the Board made it out to be.
Well, apparently the Idaho state exam was mauled by deregulation efforts recently and now it's simply a shortened version or the FS or PS. If you got the exam after the change then that might explain why it seemed so simple.
I know I passed the FS and PS on first attempts but I can't remember about the pre-nerfed state exam. I do remember treating it as a closed-book exam which made it more difficult than it was probably intended to be, but I also remember complaining about a couple of the questions being... not very reasonable, so who knows. 😆
