I'm looking to get licensed in Missouri (currently licensed in other PLSS states). The process as I understand it is (essentially): fill out the application, prove you're licensed already in other states, and take the state-specific exam. However, I can't find a study guide for the exam, so I really don't know what to expect. Do they have some kind of reference for the state-specific exam? Thanks in advance.
If Missouri uses PSI or a similar exam service, you'll likely get the reference list through them once you schedule the exam.
Finding a comprehensive list of the statutes and codes with the potential to impact PLSs has been difficult for me in nearly every state I'm licensed in. If anyone reading this belongs to a board of licensure or state society and thinks there's some great utility in forcing folks to wade through the internet to find trespass laws, statutes of limitation, or other rules or laws outside the standards of practice, please consider that many of us are working full-time and raising families and just want to know and understand the rules. Playing hide and seek with this type of information is a foolish approach that only serves to annoy the ambitious, while the folks who will struggle to get a passing score on the exam will just get those questions wrong and be left in the dark.
When I was considering getting licensed in Florida I was looking at the same problem. Somebody suggested that I contact the State to ask what materials that I should concentrate on and I got a reply with sources of all of the information that I should focus on.
I hit a road block filling out my NCEES profile when it came to references as most of the people that I worked directly under as an LS are now diseased. I put the process on hold for a while because it really isn't that important to me but now that I am in long term recovery from surgery, I might as well contact NCEES to see how to proceed with references.
The MO State Specific exam is a pen/paper exam administered by the Board. Application to sit is directly with the Board. No testing agency to go through.
There is a Land Surveyors Review Course (3 day seminar) presented every summer. The reference material provided and the lectures cover about anything that might come up on any of the exams, FS/PS/MO SS. The third day is MO Specific topics generally (MO vs todays BLM procedures for example)
You can most likely contact the Board, or MSPS, and get a copy of that reference material if they have any of them leftover. Occasionally, MSPS will have a binder with some of the pertinent Statutes in it for sale at conferences. Or, you can sort through the CSR and RsMO yourself and put those together.
Below is a link for an exam sample.
https://pr.mo.gov/boards/apelsla/SAMPLE%20QUESTIONS.pdf
Edit: For the FS, additional study materials will be necessary due to such a wide range of tested topics
Buy Dick Elgin's Missouri Book. Read it. Do all the problems and pay close attention to the differences with MO compared to "recent" PLSS states, were are a bit different as we are an "older" state. Review all the Minimun Standards, Chapter 60, show all work, do the section breakdown problems first. Personal experience, as well as others will for sure say - it is not an easy test, and time will be your emeny. Good Luck!
N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00
PLS - MO, AR, KS, CO, MN, KY
I hit a road block filling out my NCEES profile when it came to references as most of the people that I worked directly under as an LS are now diseased.
Must be a helluva disease if they can't operate as a reference. 😏
I've run into a bit of the same thing except mine are retired. I'm planning to mark my experience as unverified and then leave a note saying the guys are retired. What are they gonna do, say no you can't take the exam because people get old and leave the profession? It's unreasonable, imo.