Thoughts from an Out-of-State Taker

[TheSerg]

I'm an engineer from Florida working for a company out of California, and needed to take the license there. As far as following the easy / work a little harder / educated guess / wild guess at the last 5 minute strategy, I found that I had a lot more "easy" questions with the seismic versus more "guessing" with the surveying. I tried using the PPI Surveying books which felt surprisingly unhelpful compared to their structures material. I used the Kavanaugh book which provided a tiny bit more reference.

On the chance I have to retake, what are YOUR most helpful reference / study tips for successful passing of CA Surveying?

Not sure if it's been asked before, but what's California's take on requiring the engineering surveying exam particularly if the only surveying an engineer has done was the freshman year class (and worked ONLY in structures during their career.)

 

[sac_engineer]

I'm an engineer from Florida working for a company out of California, and needed to take the license there. As far as following the easy / work a little harder / educated guess / wild guess at the last 5 minute strategy, I found that I had a lot more "easy" questions with the seismic versus more "guessing" with the surveying. I tried using the PPI Surveying books which felt surprisingly unhelpful compared to their structures material. I used the Kavanaugh book which provided a tiny bit more reference.
On the chance I have to retake, what are YOUR most helpful reference / study tips for successful passing of CA Surveying?

Not sure if it's been asked before, but what's California's take on requiring the engineering surveying exam particularly if the only surveying an engineer has done was the freshman year class (and worked ONLY in structures during their career.)

To answer the last question, the surveying test was mandated as part of the PE requirements in California because at one point in time, registered engineers had very little surveying knowledge, especially if their school didn't have it as part of their curriculum and yet was considered an ABET accredited institution. So when they graduated and were in the industry, they were finding themselves using surveyed information without any fundamental knowledge about it. Also, CA can mandate additional state-specific exams so long as the working requirement after graduation in a Bachelor's program is only 2 years, compared to 4 years in most other states.

 

[TheSerg]

Thanks for the information. I agree that surveying is something barely covered in the schools. It appears to penalize those who never worked in it or plan to but I guess I just have to prepare for it (or hope I passed it on the first try.)

 

[ptatohed]

I feel the exact opposite. Even though I haven't done direct survey work in my career, I still find the survey problems intuitive and reasonable. Seismic, however, I am clueless.