ME Land Surveyor common mistakes
ME Land Surveyor · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating a found monument as controlling simply because it is called a monument, without first establishing that it is the original corner or a valid perpetuation of it.
Candidates memorize the hierarchy (monuments over distances, distances over area) and then apply it mechanically to pipes, pins, and stakes set by later surveyors, owners, or utility crews. The hierarchy only governs when the evidence is competent; an original monument outranks a later one, but a later one may outrank nothing at all.
What to do instead
Before ranking conflicting evidence, classify every monument: original vs. subsequent, undisturbed vs. disturbed, and set by whom and under what authority. Practice writing a one-line provenance for each monument in a fact pattern before comparing it to deed calls.
Reading the deed as a self-contained description and ignoring the chain of title, prior surveys, and the circumstances at the time of the conveyance.
Exam fact patterns supply a deed plus surrounding history, and time pressure pushes candidates to compute bearings and distances immediately. The habit comes from coursework where the deed was the whole problem.
What to do instead
For every boundary question, first list the parties, the date of severance, the lands retained, and any referenced plat or prior survey. Then interpret the deed in light of the monuments and conditions existing at that date, as the rules of construction require.
Computing an area or closure without checking the arithmetic against an independent method, then accepting a misclosure that is actually a blunder.
Candidates rely on one calculator pass or one software run. A transposed digit or an omitted course produces a misclosure that looks like ordinary random error, and the candidate attributes it to measurement noise.
What to do instead
Always close the traverse by a second route (sum of northings and eastings separately, or a coordinate check back to the point of beginning) and compare the misclosure vector to the expected precision. If the misclosure is an order of magnitude larger than the instrument and procedure justify, hunt for the blunder before adjusting.
Applying a compass rule or least-squares adjustment and reporting adjusted coordinates as if they were the measured values, without documenting the adjustment or preserving the raw observations.
Software produces a clean coordinate list, and candidates present it as the survey. The distinction between observed, computed, and adjusted values is easy to blur when the output is a single table.
What to do instead
Report raw field observations, the adjustment method, the misclosure before adjustment, and the final coordinates as separate items. State the precision and the basis of bearings. On the exam, if asked what the surveyor should do, the answer includes documenting the adjustment, not just performing it.
Citing a Maine statute or Board rule from memory by general subject matter without knowing which provision actually governs the situation described.
Candidates study summaries and remember that Maine regulates surveying, licensing, and practice, but not the specific sections, thresholds, or wording. Under exam pressure they pick the answer that sounds most like the summary.
What to do instead
Build a one-page table of the specific Maine provisions you are responsible for: licensing and licensure exemptions, minimum standards for boundary surveys, monumentation and filing requirements, continuing education, and Board disciplinary authority. For each, note the trigger facts and the required action. Verify every entry against the current statute and Board rules before relying on it.
Answering ethics and business questions by choosing the option that protects the client's interest or the surveyor's fee, rather than the option that protects the public.
Candidates import a customer-service mindset from private practice. The Board's charge is public protection, and the correct exam answer often requires disclosing an error, declining a job outside competence, or refusing to seal work prepared by others.
What to do instead
For every ethics item, ask who is exposed to harm and what the public-protection answer is. Memorize the recurring duties: seal only work you prepared or directly supervised, report known errors, avoid contingent fees on boundary opinions, and maintain independence.
Confusing a record bearing basis with a magnetic or grid bearing and mixing them within one computation or plat.
Deeds record bearings in whatever basis was used at the time, and modern instruments read magnetic or grid. Candidates convert some courses and not others, or omit the basis-of-bearings note, producing a plat that cannot be retraced.
What to do instead
Establish and state the basis of bearings for every survey. When rotating record bearings to a common basis, apply the rotation to every course and verify that the rotated figure still closes. On plats and descriptions, always include the basis-of-bearings statement.
Ignoring the difference between record and measured distances when evaluating whether a monument was disturbed, and resetting a corner without first exhausting evidence of the original position.
A disturbed monument looks like a wrong one, and the impulse is to set a new corner at the mathematically correct position. That destroys the best available evidence of the original location and may perpetuate an error.
What to do instead
When a monument is disturbed, gather evidence of its original position (adjacent monuments, bearing trees, accessory evidence, occupation, prior surveys) before setting anything. Document the reasoning and the evidence relied on, and set a new monument only as a perpetuation, clearly identified as such.
Treating a subdivision plat review or a lot split as a purely geometric exercise and overlooking the municipal, state, and Board requirements that attach to the filing.
Candidates focus on the math and the drawing and forget that approval, signatures, monumentation timing, and recording are part of the deliverable. Questions about what must appear on a plat or when monuments must be set are answered from memory rather than from the governing requirements.
What to do instead
Keep a checklist of plat content, approval signatures, monumentation timing, and recording steps, and verify the current Maine requirements and the applicable municipal ordinance for each. In a fact pattern, identify every approval and filing step before addressing geometry.
Failing to recognize when a question is testing the limits of the surveyor's authority or competence, and answering as though the surveyor may decide a legal question.
Candidates conflate surveying with adjudication. A surveyor locates and evidences boundaries; a court decides disputed title. Similarly, a surveyor should not accept an assignment outside their competence without appropriate support.
What to do instead
Separate the surveyor's role (evidence, measurement, opinion with stated basis) from the court's role (determining title) and from other professions' roles. When an item asks what the surveyor should do about a title dispute, the answer is to locate and report the evidence and advise the client to seek legal counsel, not to declare the boundary settled.