8 replies to this topic

[nimas]

I have a Mechanical Eng. background and I have never had a survaying course or experience. I was wondering if I can do the self study or need to take a course.
If you recommend self study which references would you recommend, if i need to take a course which course would you recommend

I want to take the April 2012 exam and I am not in California to be able to take in site classes. I already passed General PE and Seismic.

Can you please give me some idea?
thanks,

[dontlikebeinganeng]

My background is in chemical however I did the civil pe. So like you, I was in a non surveying background (totally lost).


Reza's book. - http://surveyingreview.com/index.html

It's very similar to Mansour's book. All problems, no explanation.

Mansour's book - http://www.passpe.com/

Not sure if Mansour or Reza copyright infringed whom as problems in both books are pretty much same (some copy errors too). Good problems and good explanations.


Cuomo (the pp2i pass books) are not very helpful, the subject is a bit off.

I would recommend getting the 120 solved problems and the practice exams from pp2i pass and using reza/mansour's book to solve it.

I heard of Jack Lui books but the books are not for sell too often.

[LRFD]

I passed on my first try using only the Cuomo book and the 120 solved problems book. No previous survey experience or classes in college. A lot of it was just geometry and trig. I also did not think time was an issue. Got through everything and had some spare time to go back to a few problems I wasn't sure about.

Edited by LRFD, 06 January 2012 - 02:55 AM.

[sikh]

My background is in chemical however I did the civil pe. So like you, I was in a non surveying background (totally lost).


Reza's book. - http://surveyingreview.com/index.html

It's very similar to Mansour's book. All problems, no explanation.

Mansour's book - http://www.passpe.com/

Not sure if Mansour or Reza copyright infringed whom as problems in both books are pretty much same (some copy errors too). Good problems and good explanations.


Cuomo (the pp2i pass books) are not very helpful, the subject is a bit off.

I would recommend getting the 120 solved problems and the practice exams from pp2i pass and using reza/mansour's book to solve it.

I heard of Jack Lui books but the books are not for sell too often.

Can you please let me know the name of the mansour book and from where I can buy? is the mansour book a review summary of surveying in regards to the P.E exam. I want to self study for surveying and very confused what to buy. Your input will be gretaly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jas

[EnvEngineer]

I tried the self study route but did not pass, I took Reza and passed. Not really sure if the course made all the difference or just the extra study. I was really burned out and by the time the course comes arround I did not want to study at all. This gave me 40+ hours of study time that I did not have to schedule. I think it really helps but it is really up to the individual.

The real question is not surveyingm but, how fast can you pull data from a map or figure and do trig calculations?? That is the basis of the survey test. If I was going to do it again I would download the old Registered Surveying exams from the caltrans site and do them. They are complicated and a challange but if you can do those quickly I think you would pass.

[sikh]

I tried the self study route but did not pass, I took Reza and passed. Not really sure if the course made all the difference or just the extra study. I was really burned out and by the time the course comes arround I did not want to study at all. This gave me 40+ hours of study time that I did not have to schedule. I think it really helps but it is really up to the individual.

The real question is not surveyingm but, how fast can you pull data from a map or figure and do trig calculations?? That is the basis of the survey test. If I was going to do it again I would download the old Registered Surveying exams from the caltrans site and do them. They are complicated and a challange but if you can do those quickly I think you would pass.

Can you please post the link from the Caltrans website to download the old registered Surveying exams?

Thanks,
Jas

[nimas]

Thank you for all of your helpful comments....
@ sikh: you may find "Caltrans" material at link below.
http://www.dot.ca.go...orkbookTOC.html
@EnvEngineer: can you verify if that is the correct link?
thanks

[ptatohed]

nimas and don'tlike: I'm curious, why are you taking the Civil PE if your backgrounds are in Mech and Chem?

LRFD: I too used only (well, mostly) the PPI books: Survey Principles, 120 Solved Problems and Sample Exams. While I too felt the exam was made up of a lot of relatively doable math problems, time was still a problem for me. I felt good about 38 out of 50. But... it was enough to pass. (I felt good about only 27 out of 50 on Seismic and that was enought to pass too)!

sik: Mansour's website is here: http://www.passpe.co.../materials.html (In my humble opinion, I find his books to be full of errors and sometimes direct rip-offs of the competition's books)

EnvE: You are right. Surveying is not hard at all. You just have to be quick. 90+% of it should be in your head. I never once opened a book during the exam except to access the HC and VC equations. That was it. The rest was in my head. Unlike the 8-hour and Seismic where I was constantly looking up stuff.

Self studying for Survey is totally doable. You guys can do it! Good luck.

[EnvEngineer]

That is good for the videos, they do not work well on some computers, you really need to fast forward on them Here is the link for the previous exams.

http://www.dot.ca.go...xams/index.html

the diagrams and terms used on these exams in very similar to those on the engineering survey. dont kill yourself over these but take a look and become familiar with how to get the needed information from the diagrams.