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18 The Nevada Traverse Vol.51, No.3, 2024%u25cf%u0009 technical resources accumulated over his years of teaching. Particularly helpful are the self-study problems that include worked-out solutions. %u25cf%u0009 GeoLearn: A relatively recent endeavor, GeoLearn brought together different instructors and experts to create reasonably priced video courses to support continuing education in surveying. %u25cf%u0009 HP Calculator Resources: The HP-33 and HP-35 are the only calculator models allowed during the exams. You are permitted to manually program your calculator for use during the exam, including adding software to run surveying calculations. The HP Calculator Resources page on Jerry%u2019s website provides a number of tips and resources.%u25cf%u0009 Mentoring Mondays: Previous sessions of Mentoring Mondays have focused on FS review and exam tactics. The recordings are freely available on the website archives.%u25cf%u0009 Wisdom Wednesdays: For in-depth conversations on technical and legal topics, attend Wisdom Wednesdays or explore the wealth of free recordings from previous meetings.Complete Pre-Exam Prep Once you have acquainted yourself with the exam details and gathered your available resources, it%u2019s time to determine what areas to focus on %u2014 and get the knowledge to stick.1. Identify Your Weak AreasStart by revising the list of FS Knowledge Areas and/or every CST Work Elements. Next, categorize each topic and subtopic by what you know and what you don%u2019t know. %u201cYou want to go through and catalog every item you need to focus on %u2014 and that will form the nucleus of your study plan. You don%u2019t want to spend time studying stuff you already know,%u201d Jerry says.Once you have identified your study plan topics, rewrite the list into a logical order of study. %u201cWhen you look at those Knowledge Areas, they%u2019re not necessarily in the order that makes sense from a learning perspective. So your next task is to group them into related topics and decide what a logical order to study is,%u201d Jerry explains.For example, there are many Knowledge Areas that lead up to an understanding of %u201cland development,%u201d so you don%u2019t want to start with that Knowledge Area first. Think back to how you were originally taught, a mimic an order that will let your knowledge build upon itself as you go.2. Understand the Difference Between Reviewing and Learning If you have an academic background, you have likely been exposed to many of the exam topics in a formal setting. If that%u2019s the case, studying the various review materials may be enough to pass the exam the first time.However, states like California have a low first-time pass rate for exam takers. Part of that low pass rate may be attributed to the fact that you can get a surveying license without any educational requirement. As a result, many California surveyors struggle with exam concepts that they are learning formally for the very first time.Take a moment to identify where you land on the spectrum of academic experience. Then ask yourself: do you have the academic background to be able to pursue the exam now? Or, would you benefit from taking some educational courses in surveying before you attempt to go further? It can be particularly difficult to pass the FS without any academic background, and it only gets more challenging on the PS Exam.2. Make Time to StudyPerhaps most critical is giving yourself the time to sit down and study. Consistency is key in order to get your brain into a frame of mind that gives you the ability to review the material, retain the material, and keep building on it.%u201cWe%u2019ve seen too many people who sign up for a review course, and right before the FS Exam they try to cram in a whole bunch of studying and learn all at once and then fail miserably because they don%u2019t retain any of it,%u201d Jerry says. His number one tip is to learn by doing, not just reading. Work problems out instead of looking at completed problem-answer example sets. If you try to simply memorize instead of doing the work yourself, you won%u2019t benefit from the mental reinforcement that comes from being actively engaged.3. Get to Know Your CalculatorWhile we%u2019ve already covered the two allowed calculator models and associated resources, the importance of knowing your calculator inside and out can%u2019t be overstated. If you are going to use an HP-35 and you%u2019ve never used one before, learn how to:%u25cf%u0009 Perform basic RPN comps%u25cf%u0009 Set it up (display, angle mode, etc.)%u25cf%u0009 Change the batteries without losing your software%u25cf%u0009 Do basic statisticsMost of the programs that are designed for these calculators are written in RPN, which is a different way of working with math using stacks and temporary memories.%u201cRPN is a very efficient way to do calculations, but if you%u2019ve never done it before, you%u2019ll go crazy looking for the equals key on a calculator because there is no equals key on there. But you must have the calculator in RPM mode in order to do the software %u2014 which means your standard calculations have to be done in RPM also,%u201d Jerry says. Above all, once you have added software to your calculator, do not let your batteries die or remove both batteries simultaneously when changing them. If you do, your software will be lost and you will have to completely reprogram it.4. Develop Helpful HabitsAs you study, certain practices will help you to develop a systematic and successful approach to answering exam questions. These are:%u25cf%u0009 Use sketches where applicable to illustrate narrative problems%u25cf%u0009 Perform comps neatly so they are easy to follow and/or track down errors%u25cf%u0009 When you get an answer, ask yourself if it makes sense Jerry is a big fan of using sketches, where applicable, to illustrate and think through narrative exam problems. %u201cToo many people try to picture the thing in their brain when they are reading a bunch of numbers and stuff, and they wind up screwing things From Prep to Recovery... continued from previous page