Exam
General Examination Information
The Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors encourages all applicants for exam and / or licensure to carefully review the applicable requirements for each before proceeding with the exam and / or licensure process.
Computer-based FE exams are administered only at approved Pearson VUE testing centers. At present, there are three centers in Mississippi: Jackson, Tupelo, and Mississippi State University. There are also centers in Memphis, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, and New Orleans; you do not have to take the exam in Mississippi.
There will be four testing windows for the FE annually. Each of these windows will last for three months. Therefore, exam appointments will be available year round. Candidates for a computer-based testing (CBT) exam may take the exam only one time per testing window and no more than three times in a 12-month period.
As of February 2020, Professional Engineer (PE) applicants who qualify will no longer make application to the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors to take the PE exam.
Instead, individuals will be allowed to register directly with NCEES, prior to having obtained the four years of engineering experience, provided they already meet the following criteria:
- hold a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from an EAC/ABET-accredited program
- have taken and passed the NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering Examination
- are a Mississippi resident
- have the FE exam and your education VERIFIED in your NCEES account
Learn more about the decouple instructions for the PE Exam here.
Computer-Based testing
The Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam and the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam, also known as the Engineer Intern (EI) exam and the Surveyor Intern (SI) exam, respectively, are CBT exams. Applications for these exams are not subject to a deadline, and will be accepted, processed and presented for Board approval on a continuous basis. Following notice that the application appears to be complete, FE and FS applicants should allow 90 days to receive notification of Board decisions on their applications.
Once approved to sit for an exam, examinees may register with NCEES to schedule an exam.
An applicant having three or more unsuccessful attempts of the same exam, regardless of the jurisdiction (state) in which the exam is administered, must submit an application to be readmitted to future administrations of the same exam. If readmitted by the Mississippi Board, the applicant may take the exam no sooner than eleven (11) months following the most recent attempt. Please contact our office to confirm how many exam citations (opportunities) are available to you on your current application.
NCEES will strictly enforce materials that are allowed in examination rooms. The only calculators allowed in the examination rooms are those approved by NCEES. For the current “approved” list, please refer to the NCEES web site at www.ncees.org. If an unapproved calculator is found in your possession after the exam begins, you will be dismissed from the exam room and your exam will not be scored.
Be advised that examination results are reported only as pass or fail; numerical scores are not given. All failing candidates will be provided with a diagnostic report to indicate performance on those sections attempted.
We encourage applicants / licensees to review the exam-day policies and videos available at the NCEES website found at the following link:
https://ncees.org/surveying/exam-day-policies/
The Mississippi PS Examination (2 Hours)
* The two-hour Mississippi PS examination is CLOSED BOOK. It consists of 100 multiple choice questions counting one point each; the minimum passing grade is 70 points out of 100 points. The examination subjects are as follows:
| Subject | % of Exam |
|---|---|
| General Land Office/Bureau of Land Management | 30 |
| Standards of Practice | 20 |
| State Plane Coordinates | 5 |
| Licensure Law | 10 |
| General Knowledge | 15 |
| Rules and Regulations | 20 |
SUGGESTED STUDY MATERIALS :
- Instructions for Surveying in the State of Mississippi and The Survey of Mississippi’s State, Indian, and Township Boundaries (available from the Miss. Association of Professional Surveyors – www.mississippisurveyor.com
- Rules and Regulations of the Mississippi Board of Licensure and Mississippi Licensure Law;
- Manual of Surveying Instructions, 1973 or 2009, Bureau of Land Management;
- Land Surveyor Reference Manual, A. Harbin;
- Senate Bill 2131, passed in 1992 by Mississippi legislature, item “o” of the surveying standards (Rule 21) can be found on our website. Go back to the home page, scroll down and click on Surveying Standards; it’s the last item on that page.
- Brown’s Boundary Control/Legal Principles, 2003, Robilllard et al.;
- Surveying Practice (2nd ed.), P. Kissam;
- Definitions of Surveying and Associated Terms, ACSM, available at www.ACSM.net.
DIRECTIONS TO FOLLOW UPON RECEIVING YOUR EXAM RESULTS
IF YOU PASSED:
• FE examinees: Congratulations! We must have received your official transcript verifying your graduation in order to enroll you as an Engineer Intern. Depending on Board operations, we USUALLY issue EI enrollment letters during the last few days of the month. EI certificates are mailed about eight weeks later.
• PE examinees: Congratulations! Please allow three weeks to receive your Professional Engineer licensure letter and about eight weeks to receive your PE certificate.
• FS examinees: Congratulations! Please allow three weeks to receive your Surveyor Intern enrollment letter and about eight weeks to receive your SI certificate.
• PS comity examinees: Congratulations! Please allow four weeks to receive your Professional Surveyor licensure letter and about eight weeks to receive your PS certificate.
• PS initial examinees: Congratulations! Please allow four weeks to receive the results of your Mississippi state-specific exam. If you passed both exams, please allow four weeks to receive your Professional Surveyor licensure letter and about eight weeks to receive your PS certificate.
If you have not yet submitted your official transcript, then once you have graduated:
- Arrange to have your official transcript sent directly from the university to the MS Board of PE/PS Licensure, 660 North Street, Suite 400, Jackson, MS 39202,
- E-mail your current mailing address to the Licensing Officer.
If you are having your transcript mailed, allow AT LEAST one week for U.S. postal delivery and then VERIFY with our office that the transcript has been received.
MDOT, MDEQ & MSDH employees, or potential employees, needing EI enrollment issued by the 1st of the month should PLAN ACCORDINGLY. Verify that we already have your transcript; don't assume the postal service delivered it. Schedule your FE exam BEFORE the middle of the month to allow sufficient time for grading. If your exam result and your transcript are received AFTER EI enrollments are issued for the month, your EI enrollment will be issued at the end of the NEXT month.
IF YOU DID NOT PASS:
For the Engineer Intern (FE) and Surveyor Intern (FS) exams: the Board’s official approval to take the exam expires after two years. The applicant is allowed up to three citations (opportunities) during each year to take and pass the exam. So it is possible for an applicant to take the exam up to six times over a two year period. We do not grant “postponements,” regardless of the reason. The Board’s official approval to take the exam expires after two years, whether the applicant has utilized six citations or not. If the applicant is not successful by the end of the second year, the application is closed and a new application is required.
For pencil-and-paper exams, except for the Structural PE exam: For the initial (first) application, the applicant is allowed three consecutive citations (opportunities) to take the exam. The citations count, whether the exam is actually taken or not. If the applicant is not successful by the third citation, the initial application is closed. On subsequent applications, only one exam citation is allowed per application.
All examinees (except Structural PE): If you have another citation remaining on your current application, you may re-register for the exam at www.ncees.org.
If you do NOT have another citation remaining on your current application, to attempt the exam again, a new application and Board approval is required. You may reapply with the MS Board at our website. The computer-based exams do not have application deadlines. Please contact the Board for the deadline to be cited for the Section exam, although typically, no new applications are approved for citation within two weeks of the exam date.
Subsequent applications to take a pencil-and-paper exam will be allowed only one citation per application, subject to the restrictions below. For pencil-and-paper exams, this one citation counts, whether the applicant actually takes the exam or not at the next offering of the exam.
For pencil-and-paper exams, an applicant having three or more unsuccessful attempts of the same exam, regardless of the jurisdiction in which the exam is administered, must submit an application to be readmitted to future administrations of the same exam. If readmitted by the Board, the applicant may take the exam no sooner than eleven (11) months following the most recent attempt.
Directions upon receiving your Structural PE Exam Results
If you passed:
Congratulations! Please allow two weeks to receive your Professional Engineer licensure letter and about six weeks to receive your PE certificate.
If you did not pass:
The Structural PE exam is a sixteen (16) hour exam, composed of two eight (8) hour components – vertical forces and lateral forces. For the initial application, the applicant is allowed three (3) citations per component to pass the examination for a maximum six citations. The citations “count”, whether the applicant actually takes the examination or not. If the applicant is not successful on both components by the final citation, the initial application is closed.
- To attempt the exam again, the applicant must submit a new application to be approved by the Board, and will be allowed only one citation per component per application, subject to the restrictions below. The citations “count”, whether the applicant actually takes the examination or not.
- An applicant having three or more unsuccessful attempts of any component, regardless of the jurisdiction in which the exam is administered, must submit an application to be readmitted to future administrations of the same exam. If readmitted by the Board, the applicant may take the component no sooner than eleven months following the most recent attempt.
- An examinee taking the Structural PE discipline must achieve an “acceptable” result on both eight hour components in order to pass this exam. A Structural PE examinee may retain credit for an “acceptable” result on one of the two components for five years; if an “acceptable” result is not achieved on the remaining component within five years, this credit expires.
If you have questions about your eligibility to test again, whether or not you may re-register, or if you need to reapply, please contact the Licensing Officer.