CA-ENGINEERING SURVEYING EXAM

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ARJ

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For any who have passed the California engineering surveying exam for PE's. Please share what publications you found particularly useful and specific study tips that you would recommend. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

ARJ

 
For any who have passed the California engineering surveying exam for PE's. Please share what publications you found particularly useful and specific study tips that you would recommend. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance

ARJ
There is a small book which I studied for my exam and passed it one go. Its a thin book and is the only reference which one needs to do completely to pass the survey exam, but as a pre-condition one needs to be proficient with the Horizontal and Vertical curves which you have to study anyways as part of the 8 hour PE exam. I have the book at my office so will post its name tommorrow when I get to work.

 
There is a small book which I studied for my exam and passed it one go. Its a thin book and is the only reference which one needs to do completely to pass the survey exam, but as a pre-condition one needs to be proficient with the Horizontal and Vertical curves which you have to study anyways as part of the 8 hour PE exam. I have the book at my office so will post its name tommorrow when I get to work.
Thanks Sardar. You rock!

 
For any who have passed the California engineering surveying exam for PE's. Please share what publications you found particularly useful and specific study tips that you would recommend. I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance

ARJ
Since I am a structure guy, I have very limited knowledge about survey. Still, I was very much confident to pass the survey in the first time I took the PE exam, cause survey exam was all about math, right?. I ended up passing the 8 hours and seismic, but missing 22 points under cut score for survey. I passed it 2nd time then. I think these tips helped me passed at my 2nd shot.

1. If the exam has 6, 7 and 8 point questions, focus on 6 and 7 point questions, skip every 8-point questions. Deal with them when you have time at the end of the exam, cause they all are way more difficult than 6 or 7 point questions.

If the exam has 6 and 7 point questions only, then focus on 6 point questions first.

2. Read Professional Engineers Act, Professional Land Surveyors Act carefully. If you can, read Subdivision Map too. As I remember, there were about 5 to 8 questions relating to those Acts in both times I took the survey. If you do know these Acts, you can solve each problem in within 30s to 1 min, which means that you can save 10 mins to 20 mins for other questions. I had 10 minutes left on clock when I finished the survey exam last time.

P.E Act and PLS Act can be downloaded from the Board's website. Subdivision Map can be found on google.

3. Understand the equipments. This Caltrans survey manual have a lot of good information about equipment, datum, types of survey and more. I wished I had known this manual at my first time. Since these types of question have nothing to do with calculation, knowing these knowledges will save you 4-10 minutes (2-5 questions).

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/geometronics/...Manual_TOC.html

4. About books,

Construction Surveying and Layout by Wesley G. Crawford is a excellent book for people who has limit knowledge about Construction survey. This book have a lot of descriptive pictures and explanation.

Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers by Paul A Cuomo is so so, but it is the best for Photogammetry calculation examples.

Engineering Surveying by Chelapati is good for Horizontal and Vertical curves, Errors and Adjustments. Other than those, this one is an under average book. Since the author tried to cover too many topics in a very thin book, from basic math to survey techniques to laws, him trimmed off everything he could afford to, which, in the end, misled your studying, especially for those who have no good surveying knowledge like me.

Surveying Principles and Applications by Barry F. Kavanagh is the book for you to read about survey in general. You will need some basic knowledge before you can enjoy this book, otherwise, you will have to find some help from experienced office surveyors.

4. Finally, practice, practice and practice :multiplespotting: This tip saved me a license :lmao:

Hope those tips help.

Best wishes in April, guys.

 
Last edited:
Since I am a structure guy, I have very limited knowledge about survey. Still, I was very much confident to pass the survey in the first time I took the PE exam, cause survey exam was all about math, right?. I ended up passing the 8 hours and seismic, but missing 22 points under cut score for survey. I passed it 2nd time then. I think these tips helped me passed at my 2nd shot.
1. If the exam has 6, 7 and 8 point questions, focus on 6 and 7 point questions, skip every 8-point questions. Deal with them when you have time at the end of the exam, cause they all are way more difficult than 6 or 7 point questions.

If the exam has 6 and 7 point questions only, then focus on 6 point questions first.

2. Read Professional Engineers Act, Professional Land Surveyors Act carefully. If you can, read Subdivision Map too. As I remember, there were about 5 to 8 questions relating to those Acts in both times I took the survey. If you do know these Acts, you can solve each problem in within 30s to 1 min, which means that you can save 10 mins to 20 mins for other questions. I had 10 minutes left on clock when I finished the survey exam last time.

P.E Act and PLS Act can be downloaded from the Board's website. Subdivision Map can be found on google.

3. Understand the equipments. This Caltrans survey manual have a lot of good information about equipment, datum, types of survey and more. I wished I had known this manual at my first time. Since these types of question have nothing to do with calculation, knowing these knowledges will save you 4-10 minutes (2-5 questions).

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/geometronics/...Manual_TOC.html

4. About books,

Construction Surveying and Layout by Wesley G. Crawford is a excellent book for people who has limit knowledge about Construction survey. This book have a lot of descriptive pictures and explanation.

Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers by Paul A Cuomo is so so, but it is the best for Photogammetry calculation examples.

Engineering Surveying by Chelapati is good for Horizontal and Vertical curves, Errors and Adjustments. Other than those, this one is an under average book. Since the author tried to cover too many topics in a very thin book, from basic math to survey techniques to laws, him trimmed off everything he could afford to, which, in the end, misled your studying, especially for those who have no good surveying knowledge like me.

Surveying Principles and Applications by Barry F. Kavanagh is the book for you to read about survey in general. You will need some basic knowledge before you can enjoy this book, otherwise, you will have to find some help from experienced office surveyors.

4. Finally, practice, practice and practice :multiplespotting: This tip saved me a license :lmao:

Hope those tips help.

Best wishes in April, guys.

Thanks for the info relieved! I've heard that the Chelapati book was a good book to get and was planning on buying it, but now I'm having second thoughts. I seem to be having trouble with the "Office Procedures" part of the test like interpreting maps, grading, etc...(stuff I never see in my field). Do you have any recommendations on any material that might help me with this? Thanks again!

 
I'd like to know as well. I got the first two done in my first try and I really want to get the last one out of the way. Thanks Sardar!
The name of the book which I studied and passed all three the first time is "Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers" by Paul A. Cuomo. I am a structural too but I think only this book is enough to pass the survey exam.

 
some of the CA members thought it would be a good idea to have a seperate sub forum to discuss CA specific exams so on the last email from ARJ, we went ahead and added it as one of the civil sub disciplines, hope it helps

 
Those tips will definitely come in handy. Thanks Relieved!!

 
just a dumb question.

Does cali have its own test for non civil disciplines (Mechanical, Electrical,etc)

or do they use the NCEES exam for those?

 
just a dumb question.
Does cali have its own test for non civil disciplines (Mechanical, Electrical,etc)

or do they use the NCEES exam for those?
I'm pretty sure they use NCEES exams for those.

 
The name of the book which I studied and passed all three the first time is "Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers" by Paul A. Cuomo. I am a structural too but I think only this book is enough to pass the survey exam.
I totally agree with the Cuomo endorsement. I read that book back to front, did all of the problems in it, and did the entire "120 solved surveying" book ( ithink thats a "the other board" book too). You gotta get really fast, so I did some of the 120 solved twice just to work up some speed.

The only reference i brought into the exam room was Cuomo. For whatever crazy reason, I passed -- even though i didn't feel great about it when I left the exam...

I know that the first time I took the test, i spent too much time on problems I just *thought* I knew how to do. The 2nd time, I answered the easy ones as quickly as possible, didn't second-guess myself, and blind-guessed on quite a few (when I could barely understand what the question was asking for!!). Time is critical, thats for sure...

 
I totally agree with the Cuomo endorsement. I read that book back to front, did all of the problems in it, and did the entire "120 solved surveying" book ( ithink thats a "the other board" book too). You gotta get really fast, so I did some of the 120 solved twice just to work up some speed.
The only reference i brought into the exam room was Cuomo. For whatever crazy reason, I passed -- even though i didn't feel great about it when I left the exam...

I know that the first time I took the test, i spent too much time on problems I just *thought* I knew how to do. The 2nd time, I answered the easy ones as quickly as possible, didn't second-guess myself, and blind-guessed on quite a few (when I could barely understand what the question was asking for!!). Time is critical, thats for sure...
I will definitely keep those points in mind.

Thanks ARJ

 
I would appreciate any insight as well. I seem to never have studied enough/right stuff for this exam. Any good reference for the construction portions?
Here's a useful link, to the CalTrans Survey manual -- lots of good information in construction staking in chapter 12, photogrammetry on Ch 13, and Engineering surveys in Ch 11:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/geometronics/...Manual_TOC.html

I feel like Caltrans must be pretty involved in writing some of the questions in the Cal surveying exam...

 
If you're looking for a ton of surveying problems to work out before the exam, check out a book called 1001 Solved Surveying Fundamentals Problems by Jan Van Sickle. Skip chapters on stuff that won't be on the PE Civil Surveying Exam. This book can be found at :"the other board": , check in the land surveyor references for sale section of the website.

 
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