State Specific Surveying Exams

After passing the Civil PE a few years ago, I started the process of getting my PLS so I can go outside on nice days and survey. For those that don't know the PS exam is a 6 hour national exam and a 2 hour state specific exam. Last october I passed the national exam, however I did not pass the state portion.

So just over 11 days , 23 hours and 35 minutes ago I retook the state exam. There were less than 8 people at my exam site taking that exam and not even 30 state wide. I understand the 8+ weeks of scoring and statistical analysis to get the results for national exams. They have thousands of people taking them, but 8 weeks for 30 people. I get it, but it's just going to kill me.

I just needed to vent and I figured this was a better place to do rather than e-mailing my state board every day.

Thanks

What state are you in? I am an licensed engineer and surveyor in West Virginia and Virginia. When I took the Va test only about 13 people passed out of 40 and I heard in :wv: only about 5 people took the exam last time. I think the surveying field is getting so depleted with licensed professionals that in 10-15 years a license will be huge to have.

My state portion (MI) was done via computer, and you found out before you left your seat if you passed or not. Almost more excruciating than waiting on results, esp when the computer keeps asking you "are you sure you wish to submit for results?" when you finally get the nerve to end the exam.

FINK_RB_PE said:

I think the surveying field is getting so depleted with licensed professionals that in 10-15 years a license will be huge to have.

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Agreed...however the surveying industry has really been decimated by the recession, so has a ways to go before recovery exceeds the workforce. Its one of the few jobs that can't really be outsourced / offshored FWIW

Funny you should ask that, I'm from Pennsylvania, but I sat for the Ohio exam (At my companies request).

The Ohio test is 35 multiple questions, but you also have to write a legal description, so the automatic scoring wouldn't help. I understand that having to read 30 descriptions will slow down the grading, but still, its going to be a long wait until June.

heres the fun of computer exams: when a quest clearly states one thing, yet the answers clearly indicate something that could not be derived from the given scenario, you realize there is no statistical analysis that will save your @ss on this quest! At this point, you essentially makeup the data to jive with the answers. Happened to me, and a guy who took the exam a few months before me - he had actually complained of a particular quest / scenario, and damned if the same one didn't show up on my exam. Pretty bad when you have to do the QA/QC in "live" test conditions.

Four and 1/2 weeks and no results....I guess that answers the question of whether or not they are going to send out the state specific results first.

So sad.

Some states are better than others. Kentucky let me know with in 3 hours of completing the test that I had passed. I took the GA state specific in April and found out I passed yesterday. All of the other states I have tested in take just as long as the other exams they adminstered.

Also, not every state is a 2 hour exam. MD is a 6 hour exam given on Thursday and GA is a 8 hour exam given on Saturday.

Congrats, although by telling me that you got results yesterday, all you've done is gotten my hopes up that I still might get them soon.

I didnt' realize that some states were more than 2 hours. My plans are limited to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, all of which are 2-hour tests. I have to ask though, what's the content of those 6-8 hour exams? There are only so many state law and regulation questions you can ask before it becomes painfully obvious that you either know the stuff or not. Are there overlaps in content with the National exam? PA has a stormwater design requiremtent, so I would understand the extra time needed for the extra subject, but what other subject matter is on those tests?

Larry said:

Congrats, although by telling me that you got results yesterday, all you've done is gotten my hopes up that I still might get them soon.
I didnt' realize that some states were more than 2 hours. My plans are limited to Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, all of which are 2-hour tests. I have to ask though, what's the content of those 6-8 hour exams? There are only so many state law and regulation questions you can ask before it becomes painfully obvious that you either know the stuff or not. Are there overlaps in content with the National exam? PA has a stormwater design requiremtent, so I would understand the extra time needed for the extra subject, but what other subject matter is on those tests?

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Yes there are overlaps, but the longer exams usually require testing knowlege of storm drain design, road design, and sometimes gravity sanitary sewer. Personally, I think there should a test for the metes and bounds states and a test for the public lands states and that is it. It is extremely difficult to get a number of PLS's in multiple states.

Yes, the PS / PLS license is nowhere near as 'portable' as the PE. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, most PE exams have no state specific exams. I know a guy who is licensed as a PS in I believe only 3 states (his degree was surveying engineering), but is licensed as PE in something like 26 states. Kinda contributes to the so-called "cheaper by the dozen" vibe a little imo. The PE license could become nationally issued without really any change in current procedures per se - is that good or bad? hard to say...I don't think it's good for individual states at any rate.

EM_PS said:

Yes, the PS / PLS license is nowhere near as 'portable' as the PE. Maybe that's not such a bad thing, most PE exams have no state specific exams. I know a guy who is licensed as a PS in I believe only 3 states (his degree was surveying engineering), but is licensed as PE in something like 26 states. Kinda contributes to the so-called "cheaper by the dozen" vibe a little imo. The PE license could become nationally issued without really any change in current procedures per se - is that good or bad? hard to say...I don't think it's good for individual states at any rate.

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Well I am now licensed in 5 states as a PS and one as a PE. For the most part, the requirements fro the PS states on the law side are all very similar. The difference is in what each state allows you to do as a surveyor. Example, SC and KY will allow only surveying activities such as boundary and topos, no design of any kind allowed. NC and GA surveyors have lots of freedom to design and develop plans which in my opinion makes the PS more valuable to have.

The Ohio board's website says Surveying results won't be out for a couple of weeks. It's no fun to visit this board knowing that my results are still weeks away. Still can't understand why it takes 8 weeks to grade 30 exams.

After all my venting about the length of time it took to get the tests graded, I'm happy to report that I've passed and am now a licensed Professional Surveyor in Ohio.

Thanks for letting me have a place to vent.

Larry said:

After all my venting about the length of time it took to get the tests graded, I'm happy to report that I've passed and am now a licensed Professional Surveyor in Ohio.Thanks for letting me have a place to vent.

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Larry, were you able to get reciprocity in PA?

picusld said:

Larry said:

After all my venting about the length of time it took to get the tests graded, I'm happy to report that I've passed and am now a licensed Professional Surveyor in Ohio.Thanks for letting me have a place to vent.

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Larry, were you able to get reciprocity in PA?

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Pennsylvania still requires me to take the PA state specific exam. I've completed the application and I expect to be approved to sit for the PA exam. Unfortunately for me, the application deadline to take the October exam was July 1st; I didn't get the license until after that, so I'll have to wait until April to take the exam.