CA PLS Exam Prep
Hello all,
I am preparing to take the CA exam in October. I have two main questions:
1. What is the "take home" exam and what to study for that?
2. Any general tips or study materials for this specific exam?
You were all really helpful with my FS and PS questions and I hope to ace this bad boy in the fall! I am devoted and willing to put in the hours. Thanks in advance.
Hello all,
I am preparing to take the CA exam in October. I have two main questions:
1. What is the "take home" exam and what to study for that?
2. Any general tips or study materials for this specific exam?
You were all really helpful with my FS and PS questions and I hope to ace this bad boy in the fall! I am devoted and willing to put in the hours. Thanks in advance.
What is commonly referred to as the "take home" exam (old outdated terminology) is a 25 question exam on the Professional Land Surveyors' Act and the associated Board Rules. After submitting your application in the online system, you will receive notification to login and take the "Laws and Regulations" exam by clicking on the link in your dashboard. There is no additional cost, it is entirely open book and meant to gauge your understanding of the licensing laws applicable to the license. You cannot have more than 7 incorrect answers. You will receive immediate results and if failing, you will have the link to retake it again. Have the Act and Board Rules handy for reference. That's it.
Just wanting to bump this to see if anyone has recommendations on materials to study. Thanks!
Hey there, I might've responded to you on another forum, or you might even be my buddy who I am helping study for this right now... but for you and future readers:
There isn't much available for the CA PLS Exam outside of what has been compiled by the CLSA or CLSA chapters. I am hoping to make a course someday to resolve this, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. PLS Exam Prep (.com) is a series of recordings from an Orange County CLSA study seminar in 2015 (I think) that leave something to be desired due to a lack of video, questions that are asked cannot be heard, and material that matches the speaker's presentations but is hard to follow along with. My suggestion for now is to find CLSA material, dig a bit deeper into the PLSS Manual and relevant PLSS materials, and review everything you did for the PS Exam with the exception of ALTA/NSPS, FEMA, FGDC, and other national standards.
Thanks! Yeah the plsexamprep is somewhat helpful but a bit hard to follow. If a site could offer a more organized "syllabus" so to speak I would definitely be interested. I think I will focus on boundary and CA law like you said and cram the other topics later in the game.
I'm not a Cali person, so I can't really help you with specifics. When I was studying for Oregon, I attended the Land Survey Law Seminars at Oregon State University. Two of them, 2 days each. The first one started with a discussion of the difference between statute and common law. It then went into the state law and several cases that tested the various statutes. The second one dealt with the various forms of unwritten boundary doctrines, including several cases.
So if you can get the California registrants here to name the various relevant chapters of the California State Law, plus a selection of about 2 dozen good, representative case you should have the material.
I wouldn't fail to read Boundary Control and Legal Principles from cover to cover. I prefer my 2nd edition to the later ones. Remembering that Curtis Brown was a California registrant and the book started out its life as Boundary Control for Surveyors in California.
https://keithwspencer.net/LSReview/Caltrans/LS-LSIT-Unit16_CALawForSurveyors.pdf
Unit 16 of the Caltrans videos, while now a little dated, certainly seems like it would be worth the time.
thank you very much, i will do that
