WA state-specific exam.
and to think, I thought waiting on the pony express was exasperating
SellmanA, post: 452708, member: 8564 wrote: I'm still waiting to hear from the Board- three weeks now since I've taken it. One would think getting the results would be quicker with multiple-choice, computer-read answer cards... but maybe not.
As I recall it was around 6 weeks back in 2014. I'd like to say it gets easier with eaxh exam, but for me it doesn't. I have learned to convert the anxious energy into something useful. Waiting on CFEDS now. My garage is cleaner than its been since I moved in, all of my hard drives are optimized, dust bunnies removed from every hidden space and the list goes on.
The lesson is simple. Embrace and leverage your pathologies...
My wait is over. Passed. Hope you get good news too..
Just got the news today 🙁
Actually... one down, one to go. Passed 🙂
I honestly didn't think I was anywhere NEAR passing. Hopefully I pass the national exam in two weeks; if I do, then I will be MINIMALLY QUALIFIED to practice land surveying in Washington State once I get my number.
Congratulations. Washington can be a tough one. You should go do Oregon while you are all studied up...
Thank you for the congrats!
I would definitely take a stab at Oregon if I had a desire to relocate there, however, I do not- even though some parts of Oregon are breathtakingly beautiful.
I might shoot for Arizona or some state where it's warmer... I heard there was a major mix-up in Phoenix a few years ago when someone misread the as-builts for what they thought was a natural gas line since it was labeled "G---G---G"... on the plans. They soon found out that they were actually GERITOL?? lines to supply the drinking fountains!!
Now just waiting for my license to arrive. A milestone reached.
Excellent news! Congrats. Let the fun begin...
Thank you!
Fun indeed- it should be real fun to remind the engineers at work that I am licensed to protect the public and NOT my employer, so to speak. All too often, the powers-that-be have little or no appreciation or understanding as to why field and office research must be extremely thorough- and field procedures rigorous- in order to ascertain boundary locations... it is especially important in the public sector as we are presumed correct by our very nature.
I could go on but I'll stop for now.
The key to taking advantage of the "open book" aspect of the exam is doing what thebionicman said: Place a lot of tabs throughout your references at places containing info you may need to look up and write some meaningful heading on the tabs so you know what each is marking before opening the book.
Knowing that you have info pertaining to a question somewhere in your reference materials doesn't do much good if you can't remember where in those materials the info is and have no method of finding it quickly. You won't have time to find the info. You will have time to scan through the short headings on your tabs to locate the info you need to find.
I didn't take the WA exam, but did take and pass the OR and CA exams, each on the first try using this method. I went in with a fairly short stack of references which included:
- State Land Surveyors' Act & Board Rules
- State Subdivision Map Act
- Latest BLM Manual
- Clark on Boundaries (BCLP and EPBL, the "Brown" books, cover the same material - whether you take Clark or the "Brown" pair depends on which organization of material works best for you.
- A general survey reference such as Moffet & Bouchard, Elementary Surveying by Wolf, or something similar that covers measurement methods
- A good GPS reference that has good coverage of the practical use as well as the basic theory and "inside the black box" stuff of how it works
I haven't seen the publication by Broadus you mentioned. If it is like his articles that used to run in POB, then it may be primarily stuff that is well above minimal competence and therefore unlikely to be on the exam. However, I do have a couple of publications he had put together for seminars he used to do that had some good basic boundary principle info as well as more advanced discussion. If I were practicing in WA, I'd certainly have Jerry's works in my professional library.
For the WA exam, I would think that Leroy Middleton's publications on Water Boundaries would be an indispensable reference for the exam. WA has some significant and unique aspects to water boundaries that you won't find in a general reference like Cole's or in the other boundary references like Clark or the "Brown" books. As a bonus, it's fairly thin, so won't add much bulk to what you have to carry in.
Don't overload yourself with references. If all of your references won't easily fit into a small backpack typically used by college or high school students as book bags, you are probably taking in more than you need and more than you will reasonably be able to use. Check the Board's website. They probably have a testing plan that will describe the type of content you can typically expect on the exam, and then choose your references to best cover those topics and to minimize redundant coverage of material. For instance, it would be needless redundancy to take both Clark and Boundary Control & Legal Principles/Evidence & Procedures for Boundary Location.
But again, it can't be stressed enough that the key is to have a method in place to find the info you're looking for in your references quickly. tabs with titles, and lots of them, worked best for me.
