If'n you were going to Oak Island why waste time on another LS when you could go get the treasure?
That could be a good thread in itself! To sit and have a beer with Fred Nolan would have been amazing.
To late for an October exam, but if you can't take it then, I would suggest going to the VAS convention and taking their exam review class in April. They do a good job reviewing possible questions.
VAS also just put on the John Foster School in July. Maybe they will do it again next year.
Good luck. I passed mine the first time by the way...no pressure.
Speaking of treasure, I'm recalling the guy in late 2014 who was asking about latitudes and longitudes to find a treasure in North Carolina. He either gave up or (very unlikely) quietly found it.
As I recall, he had "deciphered" something that he thought gave him astronomical lat-lon from 1870 and expected that to match his handheld GPS to sufficient precision to dig a hole at the treasure. I don't think we ever got through to him that those are different animals and might be a football field apart.
Although I've never been a part of a treasure hunt, I find it super fascinating! I'm sucked in to all of those treasure hunting shows lately. I love catching times when surveying is involved. Most untrained eyes would never catch it. As for what you were talking about, I'll have to look that one up!
@jflamm Found it:
https://surveyorconnect.com/community/surveying-geomatics/ttt-non-surveyor-looking-for-info/
Is there a study guide or resource for the State Specific test? I'm looking for a guide that includes Virginia specific information regarding title law and Virginia specific survey regulations. I was surprised to see only a fraction of the test addressed boundary survey law. None of the resources included on the State's website spoke to Oyster Bed lease plats and monumentation requirements. Where in State regulations can I find the maximum length of a sounding lead line used when surveying tidal creeks in VA? Any direction would be appreciated.
@jhiggins I am set to take VA State Specific Exam in October.?ÿ I'm running into the same thing.?ÿ A voluminous list of suggested source materials and very little specificity on what they will squeeze into a 2 hour exam.?ÿ Did you take this exam since your post??ÿ Any guidance?
Thanks JD
Updating this for others. I passed the non drainage LS exam. Good advice upstream in this thread regarding references. As absolutely ridiculous as it seems to print thousands of pages of reference material when the technology exists to allow the use of PDFs in an exam, I would recommend printing everything on DPOR's reference list and tab the heck out of it (but only with Virginia's approved tabs mind you).
Virginia was my fifth state specific exam and so far it takes the cake for being the least applicable to land surveying. I suspect an engineer with no surveying experience could pass this exam more easily than a seasoned PLS. It's possible that the same exam is used for both LS and LS-B options.
so far it takes the cake for being the least applicable to land surveying
Spoken like someone what hasn't take the Delaware exam - that was basically a TR-55 & Sediment Control exam when I took it 🙄
The VA LS was one of the toughest tests I have had to pass in my career, and I have multiple licenses. I would absolutely recommend taking the entire wheelbarrow load of references recommended for the VA exam. I had to borrow some, print some others to have everything needed to pass. I didn't need the entire wheelbarrow load for the test I took, but at least I had what I did need.
For the last 10 years I have had nobody to report to as the Director of Surveying. I sat down to look at the FLA application and decided against taking the exam as I am almost 60 years old and when I went to list my references from the past 40 years, only one, but possibly two, are still alive.
PA is exactly the same, mostly TR 55 and pipe design, none of which I care to do.
I'll be taking this exam in the next month or so....shocked to see all this drainage knowledge needed. I've printed all VDOT info, but do I really need to learn all this drainage?
