Error on the CA Survey Exam

I just took the CA Survey Exam on Monday and noticed an error in the exam. If there is indeed an error in the exam I took, will that question be thrown out? I needed to take additional time to find that error, which took away from time to complete other problems. Has this happened in the past? Thank you for your assistance in advance.

Of course errors can happen. I can vividly remember an error in my FE exam regarding moment of inertia problem. I "love" calculating moment of inertia so I know when the answer wasn't in the options it was an error.

I believe this will be catched and question disregarded when the experts take the exam. I think they have a panel of experts that take that will take the exam also and the panel will be the ones determining the passing score. At least for 8 hr PE that's how they do it as far I know.

Yes I figured this question would be thrown out, but it is a little unsettling (to say to least) that I had to take the time to solve it, re-check it twice before I realized it was a mistake in the exam and not my mistake. Just like you this problem was a bread and butter problem for me that I knew was a gimme question. The only problem was that it takes time to set it up and crank it through the old TI. I just really really sucks that I took that additional time on that one when it will probably just be thrown out in the end. BTW, thanks for your response and insight.

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/pubs/forms/examcomnts.pdf

Gosh I guess I am not the only one thought there is error on one of the exam problem. Is it regarding to a horizontal curve problem?

You should not have spent a lot of tme on ONE single question. You lost valuable time that you could have spent on other questions. These exams are not only designed to test your knowledge but more importantly are designed to test on how you manage your time and if you have a great plan of attack (strategy). I remembered one professor from college and he used to tell us that there is a strategy for doing multiple chioce exams, you just need to learn how to pick the right multiple choice answer as oppose to actually solving the whole problem. Those are two different concepts. People should spend 80% of the time on the questions that you know you can do and if time allows take an educated quess on the rest. Another tip is to scan through the exam and try to find the easy and doable problems first and do those, DO NOT start anwering the exam by going in a chronological order like 1, 2, 3 and so on, if you do you will get stuck on one question and at the end you won't have time to answer doable questions that happen to be towards the end. Out of the 55 questions and based on past scores, passing percentages, etc., you will most likely pass if you answer 32-36 correctly.

bernardoomar said:

You should not have spent a lot of tme on ONE single question. You lost valuable time that you could have spent on other questions. These exams are not only designed to test your knowledge but more importantly are designed to test on how you manage your time and if you have a great plan of attack (strategy). I remembered one professor from college and he used to tell us that there is a strategy for doing multiple chioce exams, you just need to learn how to pick the right multiple choice answer as oppose to actually solving the whole problem. Those are two different concepts. People should spend 80% of the time on the questions that you know you can do and if time allows take an educated quess on the rest. Another tip is to scan through the exam and try to find the easy and doable problems first and do those, DO NOT start anwering the exam by going in a chronological order like 1, 2, 3 and so on, if you do you will get stuck on one question and at the end you won't have time to answer doable questions that happen to be towards the end. Out of the 55 questions and based on past scores, passing percentages, etc., you will most likely pass if you answer 32-36 correctly.

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Your response seems off topic to this thread. Regarding not spending time on one question, I think the point of this thread is that C.M. did not intentionally do so. He started a problem he thought was straight forward, did not get one of the four answer choices (presumably due to an exam error), and so he had to try it again. Regarding ".... you just need to learn how to pick the right multiple choice answer as oppose to actually solving the whole problem." This might work with a select few questions, or even help you maybe get it down to 50/50 a few times but, I assure you, these are professionally written tests, it will be very difficult to select the correct answer without solving the problem first. Actually, even though BPELSG has not posted passing cut scores in many years, when it did, a score of about 50% - 55% was a passing score, so say 31 / 55.

Well off topic here, but I think the cut score is probably lower than I expected. I figured if I passed it would be border line pass and show minimum competency.

I agree that the exam is written in a way hard to rule out obvious wrong answer without actually solving it. Unlike the practice exam that I did from mansours and two other practice exams, personally I think the actual exam is a lot more in depth...

Like OP described, I get sucked into the potential question that might have an error. I KNEW exactly how to solve the problem, it looks easy and I done it several times in my study. However in the exam I solve it for 3 times and couldn't get the answer in one of the four options. And I don't think the intention of the exam is designed to have trick test takers....so it must have an error or written poorly to mislead test takers. Then I realize that need to move on and rush my way to the end and scrambled to finish the exam.

It was a learning and humble experience for me. After taking both 16 hour SE and CA seismic and passed them on first try, I had studied enough that when I tackled a problem I know it's either a hit or miss. I walked into CA surveying feeling well prepared, then 10 minutes into it I felt that I was underprepared. Walked out the exam feel like I didn't do a good job and score less than 70%. I feel so lucky when I find out that I passed.

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Lungshen said:

I walked into CA surveying feeling well prepared, then 10 minutes into it I felt that I was underprepared. Walked out the exam feel like I didn't do a good job and score less than 70%. I feel so lucky when I find out that I passed.

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Same here. I started studying for CA seismic back in October after sitting for the 8 hour NCEES exam. I signed up for both seismic and survey when I got my pass notice. Spent about 5 months studying seismic. I had gone through the 2009 IBC Hiner book (which I had had for a few years) by February. At that time I got the 2012 IBC hiner book and all the new codes. I went in feeling confident for seismic and I felt like I did okay on April 4th.

I started purchasing PPI surveying books in March on ebay. I resscheduled my surveying exam from april 18th to the 22nd so that I could have the extra weekend to study. I started studying exactly 2 weeks before exam day. I felt really confident walking in like I was gonna murder/death/kill it.... After the first problem and 10 min had gone by, I was like wtf? It took me like 4 min just to understand what was going on in the diagrams. What sucks even more is that you can't copy them on to paper because they are so detailed. I would have loved to have a paper exam instead. Alas I passed both. I really wonder if the CBT pass rate is lower than paper exams? Just curious.

good job. I dont know about seismic since I am structural background. I only studied about 20 hours on seismic and murdered the exam. I spent abour 120 hours on surveying and preped 4 months for it. Felt like crap and humbled when walked out the surveying exam. I figure if I pass it will be borderline pass. If i can pass it, the cutscore must be really low lol. historically it is 50% to 55% so....pick the one you know how to do and dont waste time on those you had no clue.

I really think if you spend the time and study you will pass.

There were a few errors in both the Survey and Seismic exams this time around for me. My hope is that they don't throw it away if I got it right, and throw away one of the ones I got wrong instead.

daxx1313 said:

There were a few errors in both the Survey and Seismic exams this time around for me. My hope is that they don't throw it away if I got it right, and throw away one of the ones I got wrong instead.

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http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/pubs/forms/examcomnts.pdf