Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385381 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

good material, but needs much more editing
If you actually work through this material enough to figure things out (as I did to help an engineer preparing for the PE exam), you'll learn lots of good stuff. The content usually seems right on target, and the practice questions are often very relevant.

However, some sections of the book do not create the appearance that the author (or editor or proofreader) really understood the material. There are also many forward references, i.e. use of terms defined later in the text.

For example, chapter 12 is particularly sloppy - besides containing several serious errors even in simpler material, the more complex examples do not contain enough information to solve without (unstated) outside references. The chapter introduces lots of stuff it fails to cover adequately, and then only the simpler stuff is actually representative of the California PE. In addition, an out-of context section on map reading is randomly inserted into different material. Some other content is duplicated, suggesting a chapter built by committee and without adequate final editing.

All criticism aside, this is still a good, concise preparatory tool for the surveying exam.

Very Deficient
This book and the accompanying "120 Solved Surveying Problems" and "Civil Surveying Sample Exams," did not cover all topics on the CA survey exam, and did not even cross reference each other well. It was poorly written, very poorly organized, and this book and practice problems and sample exams were all were full of mathematical errors.

About the only good thing about the book was its chapters on angle measurements and traverses. Though it didn't explain how to set up the computations, you could figure it out from the figures. The one main deficiency in the traverse chapter what that it corrected a traverse in an example problem without saying how, then explained in detail in a following sections how to do it. A little backwards.

This book needs serious clarification of the photogrammetry and public lands system chapters, and should include information on vertical datums, earth curvature, refraction and other tape corrections, and survey equipment. The California Coordinate chapter was very unclear, you can download better information off the CalTrans website, along with standard survey staking guidelines. I was never sure of the purpose of the astronomical observations chapter.

I felt like I was able to pass the exam, but it was more from my work experience than these books. The sample exams did reflect the test, but the number of errors in the answers were astounding. I recommend getting a basic survey book, and using Lindburg's Civil Engineer's Reference Manual for horizontal and vertical geometries, as well as the other survey and earthwork information it contains.

Don't waste your money
Totally inadequate for the California Surveying examination. The 3 chapters in Civil Engineering Reference Manual by Lindeburg covers more surveying than this entire book. A real surveying book or review course is required. This book is a rip-off.