Pool on CA-Seismic/Survey Exams

[LXZ]

I'd like to initiate a survey on the difficulty of both CA specific tests for Civil Engineer to help us guess the cut-score if possible. I'd like to have as many people as possible to share the information on the following items. Later on I will summarize the survey and get to a point of possible range of percentage we need to pass. Here are the questions:

1. Is this your first time to take it?

2. Based on 1 to 5 scale, from easy to difficult, what is difficulty factor you think for this exam?

3. If you have taken Seismic before, is this the most difficult one for you?

Here is my quick answers:

For Seismic

1. Yes.

2. I'd say it is 5 out of 5

3. N/A

For Survey

1. Yes.

2. I'd say it is 4 out of 5

3. N/A

 

[ARJ]

TOOK SURVEYING:

1) NO, NOT FIRST TIME

2) 3 OF 5

3) N/A

 

[Desert Engineer]

Seismic:

1)No (2nd)

2)5

3)yes; based on the 1st time I took it, which I didn't study for. In the first exam it was like a foreign language. It was harder this time, understanding the material; but not having time to get the answers to the more challenging problems.

 

[civilsid]

This was my first time.

I thought the "the other board" materials I had to study with were not competent to help me pass but I had no way to know that ahead of time. I'm not saying that I certainly failed it but I am very comfortable with the NCEES portion and fairly comfortable with the survey portion.

But, in general, with less than 3 minutes per question, that was a very challenging exam.

As far as survey, I thought it was maybe a 4/5 in your scoring system. Some engineers will never use surveying and I thought it was asking a lot for every engineer to know. Fortunately, I work with it fairly regularly so I feel confident that I did quite well. I brought a compass, protractor and scale.

By drawing oput several of the questions, I was able to get answers fairly efficiently.

 

[user 788]

Seismic:

Seismic was difficult for me because I ran out of time.

1) Yes

2) 4 of 5

3) N/A

Surveying:

I felt that surveying was extremely easy.

1) Yes

2) 2 of 5

3) N/A

 

[mr. smee]

Tina

What surveying references did you end up using?

Here's my input on Seismic for the October 2006 when I passed it:

Seismic was do-able.

1) Second time around; took it for giggles the first time.

2) 3 of 5--tricky, but I was comfortable with all the codes.

3) Easier when you prepare thoroughly, for sure.

 

[user 788]

Tina
What surveying references did you end up using?

The only reference I used during the exam was the one from "the other board", Surveying Principles by Cuomo.

 

[mr. smee]

Tina, another question if you don't mind: what publications did you use to prepare for the test other than Cuomo?

 

[user 788]

Tina, another question if you don't mind: what publications did you use to prepare for the test other than Cuomo?

I used the other two books by "the other board" (Sample exam and 120 Questions) and then I found a link to a Caltrans prep course here on the board.

But a lot of the questions on the exam were actually about stuff that I deal with at work. So much of it was very familiar to me.

 

[mr. smee]

Personally, I found the surveying exam to be challenging, but fair. The material on the test, generally speaking, was a bit more difficult than the stuff put out by "the other board", but definitely do-able for the most part. Plus, surveying isn’t something that I deal with on a daily basis.

I did run out of time, unfortunately. But hopefully I answered just enough to pass. Just as I feared, there were probably 4 or 5 problems on there that I couldn’t answer.

Difficulty: 4 of 5.

How did everyone else feel about the October 2007 offering for surveying?

 

[MarcG]

I work in a structural office so the seismic was a no brainer...Surveying on the other hand was hard, primaraly because I went in cold without any studying (probably 2hrs max studying). I didn't expect to pass, and didn't, but did better than expected.

For Seismic

1. Yes.

2. 1 out of 5

3. N/A

For Survey

1. Yes.

2. 3 out of 5

3. N/A

 

[Brianne]

I'm an environmental engineer, so I do not do any seismic work. We do some surveying, but solely GPS surveying.

Seismic:

1. Is this your first time to take it? Yep (Passed)

2. Based on 1 to 5 scale, from easy to difficult, what is difficulty factor you think for this exam? 2, it seemed much easier than I expected since everyone's so frightened of it. It seemed some questions were pulled directly from the Hiner workbook.

3. If you have taken Seismic before, is this the most difficult one for you? first time

Surveying:

1. Is this your first time to take it? Yep (passed)

2. Based on 1 to 5 scale, from easy to difficult, what is difficulty factor you think for this exam? 4, it seemed more difficult than I expected. Some of the questions were much more complicated than anything I'd seen in my practice problems.

3. If you have taken Surveying before, is this the most difficult one for you? first time.