Practice questions and exam

[Gary O]

There are a couple separate threads going right now with the same idea....posting problems and answers ffor candidates to work on and learn from.

Another is to compile a practice exam from unposted problems to allow the candidate to:

1) ....get into the 'test taking' mode.

2) ....make and learn from their 'stupid' mistakes for free. If you have atendency to read the question too fast you'll see the results of that BEFORE you take the real one.

3) ....learn how to take a test if its been a while since your last one.

As a County Surveyor I don't get to see the sneaky problems y'all work on so it falls to you LS's to provide those practice questions. I am willing to organize and distribute the exam questions but don't have your experiences.

Any other ideas?

Gary O'Connor, LS

[GregCVS]

Not being a PLS I am somewhat limmitted. I can explain what I need so that I can learn but I don't know how the test looks. I don't know how the questions are formulated or what kind of a format is used.

[Gary O]

Greg,
I/we will put the questions in the test format used for several years, but its not really the format that's important, its the knowledge.

Gary O'Connor, LS

[Sunburned_Surveyor]

Gary O,

It looks like we might be heading in the same direction. I would be willing to put some time into to design a simple website that could facilitate our efforts. We could feature a particular question at a regular interval, perhaps once a week or once a month. This "Question of the Month" or "Question of the Week" could be posted and after some discussion, a worked out solution, or several possible solutions could be to the question would follow. We could also have a page for one or more practice exams. I thought a section featuring a California Court Case or section from the State Code that affect Land Surveying might also be highlighted on a monthly basis, with its own page and area for discussion. I'll see if my company would be willing to host the web site. We've got a great IT guy working for us, and I'm sure he could get it online without very much trouble. I also know one or two California LS's that would probably be willing to help us out with some material initially. If your are intersted, please let me know.

The Sunburned Surveyor

[Gary O]

Sunburned,
I started this thread when I happened upon your discussion in one thread while I was having a similar dicussion in another.

My only concern with this idea is that someone will need to 'babysit' the questions. Candidates have it tough enough without having bum questions so prior to their posting they need to be checked for errors. I was concerned about difficulty but since the board isn't we shouldn't be.

If you have someone to sponsor and technically support a separate website, that would probably be the best direction. I will help in any way I can.

I extend an invitation to everyone reading, posting or lurking on this board to gather up a 'real life' problem or two, work them into LS type questions and submit them once we have a forum available.

Time's a'wastin' ! We gotta get this thing rolling asap!

Gary O'Connor, LS
the 'Air Conditioned Surveyor'

[Bob Hart]

CLSA can provide the administration, keeping the "hard copy" of the questions and at the appropriate time, post the answers.

Please send the questions with the answers to Adminstrator, Attn: Exam preparation Questions, we will develop a trial run and adjust as necessary. This does not need a lot of administration, but remember without quality control of the questions and answers, we undoubtedly will post questions that do not meet our zero tolerence of errors.

Let's start by submitting the material and suggesting a two week per question run time, or suggest something else.

Bob Hart

[Sunburned_Surveyor]

Give me a couple of weeks to design the website. Then I will let you guys preview it to see what you think. In the meantime, it looks like CLSA will be the home for our questions. (I'm guessing questions will be posted to this forum?)

I had imagined enlisting the help of several Licensed Surveyors that would review questions and answers for the website. I would hope there would be a few that would volunteer for this duty. I think I already know a couple, but would need to ask them. I also believe it is quite possible a situation could come up where there could be more than one correct or possible solution to a problem. I think it is important to allow for more than one perspective on a situation, although I imagine the most important answer is the one that will score the best on the LS exam.

I only thought a web site might give our effort a little more structure and definition than would a thread on this forum. (Although the CLSA forum is a great area for discussion, and I appreciate their support.)

Let me know if you would still like to preview a site. If you do, I'll put something together. If you like it, we'll get it on the net, and I'll take care of the support for the site. Hopefully, if it takes off, others will pitch in. A couple have already volunteered there assistance on this forum.

The Sunburned Surveyor