illinois Licensing procedure

You should only have to take the State Specific portion of the test when getting licensed by reciprocity.  I'm licensed in NJ and know a few people who applied for their Jersey license under reciprocity and the State Board used to mail them the State Specific test because it was open book.  I'm not sure that they are still doing that.

@chris-bouffard   yes, just the IJ test, offered a few times a year.   But trying to apply for that is sending me in circles.   Wish they had a decent website that you could fill in like a flow chart so you know what you need to do.

As someone who lives in IL and not licensed in IL....prepare yourself for a metric ton of BS. 

About 10 years ago, my bachelors (Non-Survey), plus 32 hours survey specific, and graduate certificate in survey engineering wasn't good enough. 

But the numbers in IL are so bad and negative growth they may be handing them out by now? 

Oh and last time I checked you cannot call the Board, nor talk to Board Members directly...like a secret society. 

I've seen a few situations where a candidate has to apply to the state board for approval to sit for the exam; and apply separately to the testing provider to actually take the exam.  Could this be the situation?

emailed the testing service, they said the application process goes through them, but they never updated their website...   So they told me to just say yes to the "have you registered with the state" option.   genius!  

On the state page, you wouldn't know about the new rule, unless you clicked on the candidate exam guide, which causally mentions that registration is now handled by the testing company.  (then provides a link to the wrong website)  

Candidate Exam Guide_LS.pdf (illinois.gov)

the correct website is    Continental Testing Services – Preparing you for a Brighter Future

in case anyone was wondering.  

As someone who lives in IL and not licensed in IL....prepare yourself for a metric ton of BS. 

About 10 years ago, my bachelors (Non-Survey), plus 32 hours survey specific, and graduate certificate in survey engineering wasn't good enough. 

But the numbers in IL are so bad and negative growth they may be handing them out by now? 

Oh and last time I checked you cannot call the Board, nor talk to Board Members directly...like a secret society. 

 

You hit the nail on the head.  Almost the same boat here.  I did manage to talk to someone directly and they were not friendly.  I tried to plead my case.  I told them that I'm licensed in 3 states, 20 years experience at that time, exceeded their survey hours with my AS in Surveying from a school in Indiana and they weren't having it because I didn't have a bachelors.  It's like they treat MO surveyors like MO hunters wanting to come over.  I'm an IL resident now but I doubt that will make any difference.

I hope you have a better experience with Illinois than I had with Indiana.  They tabled my application once for a lack of documents without telling me about it, and when I failed the test the first time, they didn't notify me that I had failed.

I remember there being a few mining questions on the Illinois test, but that was two decades ago.

NY was the worst.  Lots of jumping through hoops and no common sense.  If you get a person on the phone, they're uninformed, rude, and condescending.  And the process takes a year and a half.

@stlsurveyor

I had a very similar experience although I was able to get my IL PLS.  I got my SIT/FS when the rule changed to only needing a 2 year degree.  Then 4 years later I applied for the PLS having completed my 24 semester hours of surveying and BS Degree (non Surveying or Engineering) and was denied do to lack of education.  I spent the next year and a half taking physics, statistics, and an additional math class at the local community college to meet the education requirement.  I just remember how much of a pain it was dealing with the ILDPR.  It seemed like everything had to be done in letter form and it would take a month to get a response.  

In my office we just had someone take and pass the FS and his experience was not as bad because the process for applying for the FS, PS and Illinois PLS test is being handled by NCEES.  I just completed the NCEESS process for my Iowa PLS and I am told once it is filled out and verified it is easy to apply to take the Illinois PLS test (2 hour). 

When I lived in New York the experience requirement was 8 years. I had 9.  They told me I needed 2 more years because I lacked enough Original surveying experience. My mentor who I had worked with every day in a 2 man firm talked to an attorney we had a close relationship with. They both wrote letters to the Board in support of my application.  2 weeks later I received notification of acceptance to take both the SIT and PLS. Toughest union I ever joined.

@ruff-surveyor Really! well maybe my 6 licenses and NCEES verified, pay to play, whatever record account may actually pay off...

I've of the conclusion that 90% of the ease or difficulty in dealing with licensing boards comes down to the attitude of the one state employee whose responsibility is board communications.

I had a nightmarish nine months trying to get Maryland to send my verification of licensure to Delaware.  The fifth or sixth time I contacted them there was a new person in that position and in a one-hour period they: called their counterpart in Delaware, emailed a non-official copy to get things moving, overnighted an official copy, and called me twice to update me on the status.  

@james-fleming   100% agree with that.   I had a heck of a time with the Indiana website, it simply would NOT remember my login or password, so EVERY TIME I went to access the site to check the status of the application, I had to go through the "make a new password" BS.  The lady there was super helpful, and emailed me more than a few times to make sure I was on the right track. She proctored the test so I was able to thank her in person.      And I got the news that I passed before I even got home from Indianapolis!    I think my hand was still cramped from having to hand write that legal description.   😉