School of PE Blog

The short answer is no. Despite passing a licensing exam commonly referred to as the "surveying exam," you are only taking this exam to complete civil engineering licensure, not a surveying licensure.

This applies to the current day, but it's good to know that civil engineers registered before January 1, 1982 are, for all intents and purposes, considered licensed surveyors.

So, what can you do? You can:

What can you not do? You cannot:

These "cans" and "cannots" are outlined in several acts, the two most predominant being the Subdivision Map Act and the Civil Engineers Act. For the Civil Engineers Act, Article 3 outlines the "authority to offer to practice or procure land surveying." This is the most important section of the Act when it comes to what you can and cannot do.

Because of all of these restrictions, it is frequently questioned by many civil engineers why this test is required or worthwhile. My answer is that you, as a civil engineer, need to be able to interpret surveying documents that are presented to you. In design structural engineering, in particular, you'll be presented with documents from several disciplines (civil, landscaping, architectural, electrical, mechanical, etc.) and each of those documents will influence your design. If you misinterpret surveying information on the civil grading plans, for example, your design may not have factored in some critical loading information.

While passing this exam doesn't grant you all the rights of a licensed surveyor, it is important for us to recognize the role that we play, and the importance of competency on the subject.