California Surveyors Forums

Anyone else but me tired of waiting? Should be any time now...

I thought I would start a thread for those waiting for their State exam results so when they start arriving in mailboxes (or your name shows up on the roster) people can start spreading the word.

Good luck to all who took it!

K. German
NV PLS #20461

The Board needs to accept the exam results at their next meeting before they can be released. The next Board meeting is scheduled for 8/11 &12. Looks like the examinees will have to wait a little longer than normal this year.

Former CLSA President and current BPELS member Pat Tami worked with BPELS staff to revise the procedure so the exam results can be approved by the BPELS Executive Officer. Last year the results were released shortly before the July BPELS meeting. This year they are expected to go out "soon"... So start looking for an envelope (all are now thin) this weekend at the earliest... If you are sitting around waiting, that is prime study time! Good luck candidates!

There's some chatter on the PE boards about BPELS mailing out results on Friday, July 16th (yesterday). We shall see...

16 buckets of approximately 12,000 letters went out shortly before 5pm yesterday.

Good luck to all examinees

I passed my LSIT test
results were in on saturday

Yes, I received my notice today, and I passed (I took national and state in April). I'd be lying if I didn't say it feels really, really, really, really good.

Special thanks to the great PLSs Bob Wallace, Floyd Huber, Pete Wiseman, Mike and Justin Pallamary, Mike Hart and all the wonderful instructors at the kick-butt San Diego review course. I could not have done it without you.

John S. Coffey, PE, PLS
San Diego, CA

[quote="jcoffey"]Yes, I received my notice today, and I passed (I took national and state in April). I'd be lying if I didn't say it feels really, really, really, really good.

Congratulations John! Did they send you a notice that you passed or your actual certificate? I'm trying to figure out what size of envelope i'm hoping for, or even if you can tell until you open it. :)

I live in a rural area outside of Reno, NV and I have friends in Reno who did receive theirs today, but I did not. I'm hoping tomorrow is the day...

Kevin German
NV PLS #20461

Kevin -

I just received a single page letter, serving as temporary evidence that I am a PLS. From my experience with other PEs and LSs recently who both passed and didn't pass, I expect that the BPELS license lookup database will be updated by the end of this week (not yet), giving me a glipse at my license number. Then the certificate will arrive in about 4-6 weeks (and it says that on the letter).

The envelope contains a single page white letter whether you passed or didn't so, sorry, the envelope is not going to help you - you're just going to have to tough it out and open it!

John Coffey, PE, PLS
San Diego, CA

John,

Congratulations! One minor suggestion:

John Coffey, PLS PE ;-)

My logic, the survey always leads the design!!

Coffey, John S., PLS 8733

German, Kevin L., PLS 8782

Congratulations to both of you and to all who passed.

The BPELS license lookup website has been updated.

Thanks for the kind words.

Dennis, I thought about that as I was typing it. I certainly don't want anyone to think that I value one over the other. Getting the PLS feels much more rewarding. So I sign,

John S. Coffey, PLS (who by the way is also a PE if anyone cares) :-)

The Riv-SB chapter had at least three pass that were enrolled in our LS review course - Shelly Jones, LS 8763, Steven Lewis, LS 8784 and Daniel Slawson, LS 8725.

I checked all the names and those were the only ones that popped up, barring any later appeals. Daniel actually found out that he passed during the course in February when he passed the October national exam, but he was in our class this year.

Congrats to everyone who did pass and keep on pushin' to everyone who didn't.

Only 76 were licensed so far. Passing percentage was likely in the 20-30% range. No way to know if someone is held up on a take home exam. I've completed the Excel file, but still have some info to add to the file - will post later today.

WITHOUT VIOLATING EXAM SECURITY -
For those of you that passed - what was the factor that made you pass?
Did you take an LS Review class?
What was it that worked for you from the class?
What DIDN'T work for you from the class?
How do we improve it?
What did you do on your own to get you through?
What did you do differently from others?

On that note I would also like to know if anyone used the State Plane Coordinate Program for the 48gx that I posted on this site.

If so was it helpful?
I would like some feedback

Thanks

Vance

John,

It has been a curiosity of mine for some time as to how many dual CA PLS/PE professionals we have in the state. From 1/1/1982 to present day, the state has issued 3,742 PLS licences (8801 - 5059) compared to 43,185 PE licenses (77150 - 33965).

If one were to make an absurd assumption that all 3,742 PLS licenses were issued to Post-1982 PEs, only 8.7% of Post-1982 PEs would be licensed to practice land surveying. As I said, that is absurd.

If I look at my organization, which is one of the biggest public works departments in the country, we have 3600 employees and 479 of them are licensed civil engineers (the vast majority Post-1982).

To date, only four (4) of us are licensed as both land surveyors and civil engineers (although others are in various stages of the exam process). So if you look at may organization, less that 1% of the civil engineers have dual licenses (4/479x100 = 0.84%). I believe that is probably a representative number to project statewide. If you do, that would mean there is a potential for about 360 Post-1982 civil engineers statewide that are licensed to practice land surveying. If you take it to the next step, those 360 PLS/PEs could potentially represent approximately 10% (360/3742x100 = 9.62%) of all land surveyors licensed since 1/1/1982.

We appear to be a very unique segment of the land development community and should be proud of it!

Anyone knows if there is a form to fill-in for the State PLS exam appeal? Or just to write in to the Board with $134.00 fee.

Thank you for the congratulations. It definitely made my day to see my name on that roster this morning. The state specific exam was a real beast. The content of the exam isn't too bad, but the time management aspect takes it to a whole different level. Not having to do that over again is a real relief.

As far as the question above, I was in attendance at the LS review at the CLSA/NALS conference earlier this year. I would say the test taking and grading methodology was a great help. I did expect to see a little more problem work in the review. Not too much, because if you don't know the content, you're not going to learn it in a 4 day review. Just enough to get the gears turning again and get the students into exam mode.

Thanks again and i'm honored to have my name on that roster with you all.

Kevin German
NV PLS #20461
CA PLS #8782

Also add Dan Cunningham, LS 8764 to the list from the RSB chapter LS Review class. Congratulations Dan.

I passed and can truly say I haven’t been this happy in a long time. To all who passed, CONGRATULATIONS! To all who didn’t just keep at it and you will. This was my 3rd try and now I'm an LS. I think what helped me the most was the SD-CLSA review class and all the great volunteers that taught the classes. I was laid off and had tons of time to study, but sometimes you get lost with all that info and they really helped steer me in the right direction. So thanks to all those guys.

BoundaryMan,

To be eligible for appeals, your score would have to be within 15% of the passing score. If you were determined to be eligible, a green notice and envelope would have been included with your results. If you did not receive that notice and believe your score was within the appealable range, please contact me and I will investigate. (916) 263-2271

Ric

Dennis - You're absolutely right. The dual licensees are few and far between and I am quite honored. I was guessing around 300 in the State based on percentages, but to get the real list we'd have to combine the 2 lists in a spreadsheet or something and list out the matches.

To the questions about studying and passing, I absolutely 100% passed the test because of the outstanding San Diego Chapter review course. I would be hard pressed to find too much to change about it - and it was well-proportioned to the exam topic proportions. I attended every single class except for one, if I remember correctly. The class started back in November, 5 months in advance of the exam. Of course I had to do plenty of studying on my own, but the best 'studying' I did on my own was my assembly of the reference materials I was going to use in the exam. I was given lots of help along the way, but being forced to tabulate eveything well, create shortcuts and summary pages, etc. forced me to know the material very well, not just where to find it. Ironically, because of this detailed preparation of reference materials, I barely needed to rely on the reference materials to take the test! If I had just been handed a well-prepared reference material package created by someone else, this would not have happened.

I also had experience taking exams that are designed so that they cannot be completed in the time allotted - the Civil PE, and I took the Seismic portion 3 times. Scan all the questions first and use 5 minutes to formulate a game plan. Find a way to identify and accept the questions you cannot answer, skip them and move on. Also, learn how to make quick decisions and be satisfied by putting your 'best answer' down, not necessarily your perfect answer - perfectionistic tendencies will kill you in the exam. Remember that the exam writers are trying to be tough but fair. No 'trick' questions, but definately 'trap' questions that may be designed to lead you in another (wrong) direction. There were at least 2 times where I went back and changed my answers to an earlier part of the problem because the later parts of the questions 'brought out' my understanding of the overall problem better.

Also, you can do it even if you have a lot going on. While I was studying, I also had a 6-month old at home, and was running a business. And I'm the kind of person that needs lots of sleep - I don't do late nights well at all. Break up your studying and do it in lots of pieces if you have to. Again, the SD exam review course was the key for me because things got started in November and I had to do ongoing prep to keep up with the course.

Congratulations to the fortunate new licensees. To the others, don't give up, study on, attend and participate in the courses as much as possible. Also, remember that you're not just studying to pass the test, your studying to become a better Land Surveyor. My education continues for the rest of my career.

John S. Coffey, PLS, PE
San Diego, CA

Welcome to the dual license crowd then! Looks like you are in need of a screen-name change ;-)

Ric,

The burning question I have is, how do they give out the numbers? Is it based on anything, like order of receipt of application, for example? Or is it random based on the stack of exams once they are finished being graded?