Customer Reviews

Land Surveyor Reference Manual (Engineering Review Manual Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The manual was not written by a professional or educator in land surveying. The manual delivers only quite superficial coverage to each category in surveying. Although the author managed to involved many relevant information from coded sources, in-depth discussions and delivery of critical fundamental concepts are unavailable.

The manual may be somewhat useful for civil engineering students with none or minimal surveying knowledge, but too much over-simplified ABCs for students possess certain basis surveying knowledge.

It contents not even adequate materials for LSIT exams.

It still could be a concise guide for Civil Professional Engineering candidates in reviewing surveying topics; however, it will not satisfy any other purposes for LS exams, advanced students, or professionals.

If you are buying references in surveying topics intended for in-depth purpose, try something else.

Like everybody else, I bought this not because I wanted it, but because it was the class text and thus, required. In that sense, it did its job (and the instructor's) in that it conveyed the information needed to pass the exams.

The downside:

--Numerous typo's, especially in the practice problems, leaving you to wonder why your answer doesn't jibe with the book's. Frustrating.

--SEVERAL leaps in logic: The book will (loosely) explain a concept. Then it will give an equation with no explanation as to how it was derived from the original concept. Sure, you can just memorize the equation, but without understanding WHY it works, it's awful hard to apply it to the real world. VERY frustrating.

--Many concepts are glossed over. Not too useful to those making a career of this.

I suppose this book is somewhat useful for a refresher course in geometry and basic surveying math, but it's no value.

Get it only if you have to. And get it used.

I am married to a licensed land surveyor, and have been in surveying for five years. I purchased this book to prepare to take the LSIT exam. It is a useful review of the pertinent math and does touch on a pretty comprehensive scope of topics, but still leaves a lot to be desired. This is a new edition and is FRAUGHT with errata. I have to update from their errata website frequently. It would be bad enough if I was familiar with the concepts in the book, but as I am trying to learn new concepts for the exam it is very demoralizing to be working through a problem which has errors in it and I can't figure out why I can't make my answer match what they have. I've done the problem correctly, but they've got a bogus solution and without a solid understanding of the concept at hand, there's no way for me to know who's right and if I've got the concept or not.

Also bear in mind this is a textbook. And trying to learn from a textbook is virtually impossible without a teacher. My husband is my tutor and I am learning using this book and his knowledge together--you are not going to learn surveying concepts out of this book by yourself...it's just too superficial. They breeze through a concept, give an example and move on...there's no explanation or in-depth analysis of what you've just touched on. It is a fine tool for exam prep, but you better already know the concepts, or have a tutor available.

The biggest disappointment is all the errata. If they had done a better job of editing before it went to press it would be a far better and more useful book....unfortunately there aren't many to choose from, so you're kind of stuck with it for LSIT prep work.

This book is written for people who didn't pay attention in high school math. The section on boundary surveying is too limited. It reads like a short course manual written by someone lacking a university-level educators background.

The "Surveying Handbook" by Brinker and Minnick is much more technical. I also recommend "Surveying - Theory and Practice" by Anderson and Mikhail which has the technical detail that should be known by a capable land surveyor. If you want a basic book on surveying, mainly related to field technique and construction staking, then get "Surveying with Construction Applications" by Kavanagh, It gives a general overview and I liked the earlier edition I used in college.

My qualifications for writing this review is that I am a civil PE and a PLS with university coursework completed in both professions. I hate wasting time and money on a poor text.

I also like the old surveying books from the 1930's for the basics of math, including spherical trigonometry, error analysis, and traditional surveying practice that still has use in modern times. It is nice to know where we came from and how things work, then use computers and field data collectors. To many instrument operators nowdays are only button pushers and don't have the technical background in basic trigonometry. Try "Surveying Vol I and II" by Breed and Hosmer and "Route Surveying" by Pickels and Wiley from a used book store.

Save your money and buy a real book. This book is so full of errors that there is an independent website where you can log the mistakes you find in the book. Harbin's explanations are simplistic and his English is marginal. After studying from this book for several weeks, I took it to my college instructor to ask him what I was doing wrong. He laughed and told me that I was doing the problems right but that the book was wrong and that he figured that about 8% of the answers in the book were just plain wrong. This is an awfully expensive book to be so riddled with errors. There is also the fact that this is the THIRD EDITION. Hello Harbin, you would think that after two tries he might get it right. I guess that as long as people keep buying the book for an exorbitant price someone will keep printing it. Save yourself the headache and expense and keep shopping.

This was the only book I used to study for the LSIT. I am not a surveyor by trade but a civil engineer. This book did a good job covering and explaining subjects that I had not been exposed to or hadn't worked with since college. Using this book to study with I passed the LSIT exam on the first try. Some of the exam questions seemed like they were taken directly out of the text of this book.

I purchased this book to use to study for my Fundementals of Surveying exam. This book covers most topics needed for the exam. I studied it along with the Sample Exam, and passed my test. It falls short on information about GIS. It would be helpful to use this book in conjunction with another study aid. It doesn't go into great detail on any topic but its a excellant overveiw. A basic idea on what your studying would be helpful because this book it not the best at teaching you something your not familar with.

I gave it four stars because I passed, and this was my main study guide. However I highly recommend additional study material.

Good review material. Although the section on Astronimical Observations contains misleading and un-needed anti-catholic comments.

I bought this book to use as a reference for the surveying portion of the civil PE exam that California requires. I thought it was very well organized and contained all the information that I needed for our test. I also used some of the practice problems in the back of each chapter to help refresh my memory and prepare for the exam. I know that it is not comprehensive for people taking the LS or LSIT, but it is better than the surveying textbook I was required to purchase when I was in college.

This book is resonably well written and is aligned with the NCEES models for Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) and Principles of Surveying (PS) exams. About 60% of book is math related starting with fractional multiplication and proceeding through state plane to Lat/Lon conversions. Other areas include limited introductions to Boundary Law and Business Practices. Outside of the math, I would not depend too heavily on this book for answers.