The FS exam — NCEES's Fundamentals of Surveying exam — is the computer-based test NCEES calls generally the first step toward becoming a licensed professional surveyor.
It runs year-round at Pearson test centers, costs $225 paid to NCEES, and puts 110 questions across seven knowledge areas, from boundary law to survey computations and business concepts.
Each state board decides who may sit for it and what a pass counts toward.
What is the FS exam?
The FS — Fundamentals of Surveying — is the fundamentals exam in US surveying licensure.
NCEES describes it as generally the first step toward becoming a licensed professional surveyor, and designs it for recent graduates and students who are close to finishing an undergraduate surveying degree from an ABET-accredited program.
It is a computer-based exam given year-round at NCEES-approved Pearson test centers, and the $225 exam fee is payable directly to NCEES.
NCEES publishes the exam specification, administers testing and scores it — but it issues no license.
Its members are the engineering and surveying licensing boards of all 50 states, DC, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and licenses are issued by those state and territory boards — not by NCEES.
So a pass is a milestone, not a credential.
What it counts toward — an intern certificate, counted experience, the exams ahead — is defined board by board.
In the NCEES Model Law's shape of the path, it feeds the surveyor-in-training credential behind the surveyor in training career.
Who takes the FS exam, and why?
NCEES's design audience is recent graduates and students close to finishing an ABET-accredited undergraduate surveying degree.
Who may actually sit is a different question, and NCEES does not answer it: eligibility to take an NCEES exam is set by each state licensing board, not by NCEES, and NCEES directs examinees to check their board's rules before registering.
Some boards add their own gate first.
Some licensing boards require a separate board application and application fee before you can sit for an NCEES exam, on top of the NCEES exam fee.
Why sit it?
In the NCEES Model Law, surveyor intern certification pairs a qualifying surveying degree with a passed FS exam.
That is the Model Law's shape, not any state's rule: whether your board issues an intern credential at all, under what title and on what terms, is set board by board.
The exam is small next to NCEES's engineering volumes.
NCEES tallied 2,286 FS examinees in its 2024–25 fiscal year — against 57,902 for its FE exam that year — part of FS and PS volumes the council reported as a 15-year high.
What topics are on the FS exam?
The FS specification for the computer-based exam — effective with the July 2020 exams — splits the 110 questions across seven knowledge areas.
- Surveying Processes and Methods — 16–24 questions.
- Mapping Processes and Methods — 14–21 questions.
- Boundary Law and Real Property Principles — 19–29 questions.
- Surveying Principles — 13–20 questions.
- Survey Computations and Computer Applications — 17–26 questions.
- Business Concepts — 11–17 questions.
- Applied Mathematics and Statistics — 10–15 questions.
The exam is closed book with an electronic reference, and it uses both SI and US Customary units.
NCEES supplies the reference standards as searchable PDFs during the exam.
The FS specification lists the 2021 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements, the 2023 FEMA Elevation Certificate and Instructions, the FGDC Geospatial Positioning Accuracy Standards and the 1947 US National Map Accuracy Standards.
The vintage on that first item matters: the exam supplies the 2021 edition, while the current ALTA/NSPS standard in professional practice is the 2026 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements, effective February 23, 2026.
What the test center hands you and what governs a live land title survey are different editions.
How long is the FS exam, and how many questions are on it?
The FS exam has 110 questions, and the exam itself runs 5 hours and 20 minutes.
NCEES's FS page lists the appointment components this way.
- Nondisclosure agreement — 2 minutes
- Tutorial — 8 minutes
- Exam — 5 hours and 20 minutes
- Scheduled break — 25 minutes
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 only approved models are Casio fx-115 and fx-991 calculators, the HP 33s and HP 35s, and Texas Instruments TI-30X and TI-36X models.
NCEES reviews the list annually, so check it before you buy or bring one.
How do you register for the FS exam, and what does it cost?
Registration runs through NCEES, but the gate is your state board.
Eligibility to sit for an NCEES exam is set by each state licensing board — not by NCEES — and NCEES directs examinees to check their board's rules before registering.
Confirm eligibility with your board
Each state licensing board sets who may sit for the FS and on what terms. Some boards also require their own application and application fee before you can sit for an NCEES exam.Register with NCEES and pay the fee
The FS exam fee is $225, payable directly to NCEES. The fee has been $225 per attempt since January 1, 2024, and the full fee is paid on each registration.Schedule a test center appointment
The exam can be taken at any NCEES-approved Pearson test center in the US, Canada or the US territories. Appointments must be scheduled at least one business day ahead, and the exams are given in English only.Test within 12 months
Once you are approved to test, you have 12 months to take the exam. If you neither test nor cancel in that period, the registration fee is forfeited.
Cancelling has its own price list.
Cancelling an unscheduled registration refunds the NCEES fee less a $50 administrative fee, and rescheduling or cancelling a booked Pearson appointment costs $50 paid to Pearson, done at least 48 hours before the appointment.
Retakes follow the rhythm of year-round testing.
The windows run January–March, April–June, July–September and October–December; NCEES policy allows one attempt per window and no more than three attempts in any 12-month period, and some licensing boards are stricter.
Confirm before you pay
How is the FS exam scored?
Results come back as pass or fail.
NCEES does not publish the passing score, so there is no published number to aim for.
The scoring adjusts for difficulty.
NCEES uses scaled scores so different exam forms are comparable, and there are no deductions for wrong answers.
Each year-round form is assembled by a linear-on-the-fly algorithm: every examinee answers the same number of questions per topic, but no two examinees get the same set.
Every question, including alternative item types, is scored right or wrong with no partial credit.
Scores are typically available 7–10 days after the exam through MyNCEES.
Examinees who do not pass receive a diagnostic report with their results.
NCEES also publishes FS pass rates for each half-year of test takers, refreshing the table each January and July.
In the January–June 2026 population, 62% of 878 first-time takers passed, and 33% of 469 repeat takers passed.
What happens after you pass the FS exam?
A pass is not a license.
Licenses are issued by state and territory boards, not by NCEES, so what a pass unlocks is whatever your board's rules say it unlocks.
In the NCEES Model Law, the next rung is the surveyor intern certificate: it pairs a qualifying surveying degree with a passed FS exam, and it is a separate certification from the engineer intern's — separate exams, separate credentials.
The certificate is an intern credential, not practice rights.
The Model Law states that a surveyor intern enrollment document does not authorize the holder to practice as a professional surveyor.
From there, the path runs through experience and the principles exam.
NCEES describes the most common route to licensure as a qualifying degree, four years of acceptable, progressive, verifiable experience, and passing the FS, the PS and a state-specific exam.
Many states provide additional paths, NCEES notes.
The PS — Principles and Practice of Surveying — is the exam NCEES designs for surveyors with at least four years of professional experience.
Like the FS, it is given year-round as a computer-based test at Pearson centers.
Your board decides the order and the details: whether it issues an intern credential and when the FS must be passed relative to it, what experience counts, and which exams it requires.
Read your board's current rules before you schedule anything.
Career information, not legal or licensing advice — exam formats, fees, eligibility rules and attempt limits change. Confirm the current FS requirements with NCEES and your state licensing board.