PS Surveying Exam Guide 2026: Boundary Law, Standards, and Practice
Video
Which Montana Code Annotated title and chapter governs the licensure and regulation of professional land surveyors in Montana?
Montana Surveying Law
Question · Easy
Prepare for the 2026 NCEES PS exam with July 2026 pass rates, the current five-domain blueprint, official reference rules, test policies, and the July 2027 transition.
Blog
Original monument
Boundary Law and Evidence
Flashcard
The Montana state-specific law examination for land surveyors is administered by which testing provider on behalf of the Montana Board?
Acronym for the township-and-range grid established by the ordinance of May 20, 1785.
Township grid
Guess the Term
PS Exam Framework and Boundary Evidence
1.1 Current NCEES Format and Blueprint
Study guide
Montana's state-specific land surveyor law examination is described as which of the following?
Read the clue and guess the term in 6 tries.
Game
Controlling elements in a deed
Before a candidate may be licensed as a professional land surveyor in Montana, which national examinations must generally be passed in addition to the state-specific law exam?
Numbered strip of townships, six miles wide and running north-south, counted east or west from the principal meridian.
The Montana Board that regulates land surveyors is formally known as which of the following?
Parol evidence in boundary work
Montana Board administrative rules for engineers and land surveyors are codified under which chapter of the Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM)?
___ line: the east-west reference run from an initial point, from which townships are counted north and south.
1.2 Legal Evidence Framework
Under the Public Land Survey System, what is the controlling north-south reference line for original surveys in Montana?
Public Land Survey System
Swap tiles to line up three of the same term.
Term Match
Adverse possession
In the PLSS as applied in Montana, a standard township is nominally how large?
Point in the federal rectangular surveys whose position is fixed by operation of law, whether set with a monument or only protracted on the plat.
How are the 36 sections within a standard PLSS township numbered?
Prescriptive easement
A regular PLSS section is divided into quarter sections of approximately what area each?
Kind of corner in the federal rectangular surveys whose original position cannot be recovered from traces or testimony, so it is restored by proportionate measurement.
1.3 Parol Evidence, Prescription, Adverse Possession, and Acquiescence
In subdividing a regular section, the interior quarter-section corner (center of section) is established by which method under BLM procedure?
Question · Medium
Flip two cards at a time to find matching terms.
Term Pairs
Boundary by acquiescence
Which BLM publication is the controlling authority for restoring lost corners and resurveying public-land boundaries in Montana?
___ and bounds: survey method used to define irregular areas that do not conform to legal subdivisions.
Legal descriptions
Under PLSS retracement principles, what is the fundamental difference between a 'lost' corner and an 'obliterated' corner?
Riparian vs. littoral rights
A lost interior quarter-section corner on a line between two found section corners is best restored by which method?
Official drawing of a survey that shows sections, lots, areas and line data, stripped of details not needed to identify the subdivisions.
1.4 Legal Descriptions and Conveyance Types
Double proportionate measurement is the appropriate restoration method for which type of lost corner?
Find five hidden terms in a grid of letters.
Term Search
Accretion vs. avulsion
In retracement, what is meant by the surveyor's obligation to 'follow in the footsteps' of the original surveyor?
Fractional subdivision of a section, left where the regular parts do not fit, whose area is computed from the field measurements.
Original GLO monuments set in the public-land survey of Montana, when found undisturbed and identified, have what legal status?
Senior and junior rights
What is the function of corner accessories (such as bearing trees, bearing objects, and mounds) in PLSS surveys?
Linear unit of 66 feet, still the legal unit for federal township surveys; 80 of them make a mile.
Professional Practice and Standards
2.1 Records, Field, GNSS, and Computations
In a fractional section bordering a meandered navigable water body, the upland subdivisions are described as which of the following?
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