Scheduled the FS
So I scheduled the Fundamentals of Surveying Exam through NCEES for roughly 5 weeks from now. I’ve purchased a TON of books in the past as I’ve been saying “I’m going to get my license…” for the last 2.5 years so as you can see in the pic below my survey related library is off to a modest start I feel like for being a young engineer who’s experience has been mainly in grading & utility construction. I was fortunate however to work the last 6.5 years with a surveying & engineering firm so it has definitely offered me quite a bit more exposure to the survey field along with this website
So from what all I have read on here as well as heard from a few others who have taken the test in the past couple of years, it sounds as if the FS exam will be quite a bit of mathematics along with computer & GIS related questions and that my study efforts (maybe an hour or so each morning as I work two jobs) would be best spent on studying the problems in the NCEES FS Practice Exams that I purchased (both the current & newly released one that’ll be effective for June 2020). I’ve also heard from others that Surveying Solved Problems for the FS & PS Exams is another great book for practice problems (believe it’s the baby brother to Van Sickle’s 1001 Problems). And somebody recommended the Fundamentals of Surveying Practice Exam book as well (came with the PPI bundle).
Any other recommendations? Things I should avoid? Test taking tips? It’s been a several years since I’ve studied hard like this to take the PE exam and also my contractor licenses (but those were not nearly as intense). Any advice would be greatly appreciated; thanks in advance as this forum always delivers!
PS: I own the HP-35s calculator in the pic but I’m not familiar with RPN calculators at all so I’m lost. However I’ve read some that people feel that it’s not really necessary for the FS or even the PS exams. I’m thinking it might be more useful for the NC state license but I’ll tackle that hill when I get there. Honestly I’ve been using Texas Instrument calculators for the last 15 years thanks to highschool & college so for the sake for being familiar with the platform, I’ll probably stick to the TI-30 I’ve got. But does anybody have some basic introductory videos on how to use this HP-35s works? Or eventually where I can get some programs built into it?
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