The PS exam — the NCEES Principles and Practice of Surveying exam — is the professional-practice exam in the NCEES sequence toward a land surveying license.
It is a year-round computer-based test at Pearson test centers: 100 questions in a 7-hour appointment, $375 per attempt, designed for surveyors who have gained at least four years of professional experience.
NCEES administers it and scores it; your state board decides when you may sit.
What is the PS exam?
The PS exam — the NCEES Principles and Practice of Surveying exam — is the professional-practice exam in the NCEES sequence toward a land surveying license.
NCEES administers it and scores it at Pearson test centers year-round.
Passing it does not license anyone: the license is a state board's act, and the PS is one requirement in that board's stack.
NCEES describes the most common path to surveying licensure as a bachelor's degree from an ABET-accredited surveying program, four years of acceptable, progressive, verifiable experience, and passing the FS exam, the PS exam and a state-specific exam.
The Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam comes first in that sequence.
The PS is the later, practice-focused exam, designed for surveyors who have gained at least four years of professional experience.
The volumes are modest next to engineering's.
NCEES's 2024–25 fiscal year counted 1,825 PS examinees and 2,286 FS examinees, against 57,902 for the FE exam — and NCEES called the FS and PS volumes a 15-year high.
Where the PS sits in the full requirement stack — education, experience, exams, application and fees — is the subject of our land surveyor license guide.
The rest of this page is the exam itself: topics, length, eligibility, cost, scheduling and scoring.
What topics does the PS exam cover?
Two specifications govern the PS.
The one in effect now took effect in January 2019.
NCEES has published new specifications that govern exams beginning July 2027.
The format does not change in July 2027: still 100 questions in 7 hours, closed book with an electronic reference, US Customary units.
What changes is the weighting across knowledge areas.
The knowledge areas in the specification effective January 2019 are as follows.
| Knowledge area | Questions |
|---|---|
| Legal Principles | 18–27 |
| Professional Survey Practices | 22–33 |
| Standards and Specifications | 8–12 |
| Business Practices | 13–19 |
| Areas of Practice | 24–36 |
The knowledge areas in the specification effective beginning July 2027 are as follows.
The weighting shifts: Business Practices questions drop from 13–19 to 6–9, Legal Principles grows from 18–27 to 23–35, and a Boundary Division of 15–23 questions joins the exam.
| Knowledge area | Questions |
|---|---|
| Professional Survey Practices | 20–30 |
| Standards and Specifications | 11–17 |
| Business Practices | 6–9 |
| Areas of Practice/Types of Surveys | 10–15 |
| Legal Principles | 23–35 |
| Areas of Practice/Types of Surveys (Boundary Division) | 15–23 |
Match any study list against the specification your exam date falls under.
How long is the PS exam and how many questions are on it?
The PS is 100 questions.
The NCEES Examinee Guide (May 2026) lists it as a year-round computer-based exam with a 7-hour appointment and 6 hr 50 min of exam time.
NCEES's exam specification describes the same block in the examinee's terms: 7 hours to complete the exam, with a tutorial and an optional scheduled break included in that time.
It is closed book with an electronic reference, and it uses the US Customary system of units only.
No two examinees see the same form.
Year-round NCEES computer-based exams are built by a linear-on-the-fly algorithm, so every examinee answers the same number of questions per topic, but no two get the same set.
Calculators are constrained.
You may bring one NCEES-approved calculator into the testing room, and an on-screen TI-30XS calculator is also available during the exam.
For the 2026 exams the approved list is Casio fx-115 and fx-991 models, the HP 33s and HP 35s, and Texas Instruments TI-30X and TI-36X models — a list NCEES reviews annually.
Who can take the PS exam, and when?
NCEES designs the PS for surveyors who have gained at least four years of professional experience.
But NCEES does not decide who sits: eligibility for an NCEES exam is set by each state licensing board, and examinees must check their board's rules before registering.
The PS is administered year-round, in quarterly testing windows: January through March, April through June, July through September and October through December.
NCEES policy allows one attempt per window and no more than three attempts in any 12-month period; some licensing boards are stricter.
Where: at Pearson test centers — any NCEES-approved center in the US, Canada or US territories.
NCEES exams are given in English only, and an appointment must be scheduled at least one business day ahead.
Eligibility is your board's call
How do you register and what does it cost?
The money comes in two layers: NCEES's exam fee, and some boards' own application fee.
Some licensing boards require a separate board application and application fee before you can sit for an NCEES exam — on top of the NCEES fee.
The NCEES fee for the PS is $375 per attempt, payable directly to NCEES, as listed in October 2026.
That fee took effect January 1, 2024 and is still the amount in the May 2026 Examinee Guide, and the full fee is paid on each registration.
After board approval, a clock starts.
Once approved to test, you have 12 months to take the exam; if you neither test nor cancel within that period, you forfeit the registration fee.
Cancelling an unscheduled registration refunds the fee less a $50 administrative fee.
Once an appointment is booked, changes run through Pearson: rescheduling or cancelling costs $50, paid to Pearson, and must be done at least 48 hours before the appointment.
That makes the NCEES fee the fixed part of the cost.
Board application fees are each board's own, and where a state adds its own state-specific exam, that exam is the state's, not NCEES's — so the total cost of the exam step toward a land surveyor license depends on your state.
Your board's current fee schedule is the number that counts.
How is the PS exam scored and when are results released?
Results come back pass/fail — nothing else.
NCEES does not publish the passing score, and it scores each exam with no predetermined percentage of examinees that should pass or fail.
The scoring mechanics are plain: every question, including alternative item types, is scored right or wrong with no partial credit.
NCEES uses scaled scores to adjust for differences in form difficulty, and there is no penalty for wrong answers.
Examinees who fail receive a diagnostic report.
Results are typically available 7–10 days after you take the exam, through MyNCEES.
For calibration, NCEES's PS pass-rate table — updated July 2026, covering the January–June 2026 population — shows a 63% pass rate for 614 first-time takers and 40% for 411 repeat takers.
How does the PS exam relate to state-specific exams?
The PS is NCEES's exam; what sits beside it is each board's decision.
NCEES's description of the most common path includes a state-specific exam alongside the FS and the PS, and NCEES notes that many states provide additional paths.
NCEES's model rules anticipate the layering: jurisdictions may require jurisdictional surveying exams, and the NCEES PLSS exam, in addition to the mandatory FS and PS.
NCEES policy likewise lets a jurisdiction still require a Model Law Surveyor to pass its state-specific examination.
A state-specific exam is the state's own gate: it is not one of NCEES's exams, so its name, format, fee and scheduling are things to confirm with your state board.
A second NCEES exam is also arriving, and it is not part of the PS.
NCEES is launching a separate Public Land Survey System (PLSS) exam, administered two times per year starting Fall 2027 at Pearson test centers, at $325 per attempt.
NCEES Squared 2025 puts the first administration in October 2027.
The PLSS exam is closed book with an electronic reference, 75 questions in 5 hours.
NCEES says some states will require the PLSS exam as a component of licensure, and PLSS registration opens one year before the first administration.
Under NCEES's model rules it is an addition to the FS and PS, not a replacement for either.
What your state stacks around the PS — its own exam, if it requires one, and the board's own rules for sitting — you confirm with your board.
Each state's full route, in the board's own terms, is on its page in the land surveyor license series.
Career information for surveyors and the firms that hire them — not legal, tax or licensing advice. Exam rules change; confirm the current requirements with your state licensing board and with NCEES before you register, test or retest.