Customer Rating:  
Summary: Lacking at an Elementary Level
Comment: This book is sorely lacking at two levels: 1) There are too many errors 2) many concepts are not clearly explained. I have two degrees in electrical engineering and decided to go back and get my Masters in Civil Engineering. The graduate coordinator required me to take the elementary surveying course and this was the required book. I got an A in the course, but please believe me it wasn't a result of this 11th edition.
It is both inexcusable and shocking that there are so many errors within the book. You would think that by the 11th edition they would have corrected the many errors. Someone needs to sit down with the editor and have a long talk.
One thing I've noticed by looking at my father's engineering books of the 40's, my EE books of the early 80s and the new books this era, overall the books have vastly improved in the ability to explain concepts to the students. This book reminds me of my EE books of the 80s.
Normally I would be so gruff and negative, but I was surprised by the amount of good reviews and thought I should put in my $0.02.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book confuses more than it educates
Comment: I am shocked that there are ANY positive reviews, and am highly suspect of the five star ones.
This book needs massive amounts of editing. There are few examples of equations and concepts; of the few that are, about a third of them are incorrect in one form or another (either they refer back to the wrong data, they skip steps, simply get the math wrong...). This is infuriating. I would like to see many more logically worked out examples, if they can manage to get it straight themselves before printing. On chapter review questions, only a very few have answers in the appendix; these are simple answers, not worked out, and not surprisingly, often incorrect.
Also, this book seems to go out of it's way to explain concepts in the most complex manner possible. If it could choose between a ten word sentance an entry level engineering student or even layman could understand, or two paragraphs of engineering-ese, it'll choose the latter.
This book has potential to be very good, with development and editing. Just amazing that it's in it's eleventh printing, reads like a diassembled beta copy. AWFUL.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty good for California Civil PE Surveying test
Comment: I bought this book for the Civil PE Surveying test. I would recommend its use for this test. I found several answers directly from this book, answers that weren't in the typical test prep book that most people buy.
I'd recommend buying this book and also one old, outdated text book (pre 1980's at least). The exam seems to have some questions that are more of historical note than they are relavent to modern surveying - I had a couple of answers that weren't in this version of the book but were in the 6th edition, because the topic covered has become outdated.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Way too many errata for a recommendation
Comment: I have been using this book for six months in two different courses, and have nearly completed it.
While the content is fine, the number of errata in this book should not be tolerated.
On the book's web page, numerous errata are listed, but there are many more that have not been reported or compiled. While trying to study this book, the errata keep getting in the way of understanding the material, as there are wrong equations, bad tables, etc.
This book is in its tenth printing, and it is simply inexcusable that this many errata are allowed to remain in the book after so many printings.
Another reviewer (an educator who has the edition with answers in the back) mentioned the number of incorrect answers in the educators edition as well.
So, if you have a choice, look elsewhere for an elementary surveying text. The authors and/or publishers of this one obviously do not care enough to correct the numerous errors which confuse the student.
Customer Rating:
Summary: how to survive the use of this book
Comment: this book is terrible! There are very few helpful illustrations, some simply don't exist ie in the defining of angles and their relationships! for some problems/projects that are fairly involved, several completely different data sets are used, so if you were confused about something on one step you cannot derive understanding from the completion of the problem. So, you are forced to rely on the horrible text written partially in crat -things are explained in the longest possible way! The author and our instructor use different terms, it is awful.My tip: rely on lectures and labs and don't miss a single one, get a study budy or work with your lab partner immediately after class. AVOID USING THIS BOOK IF IT CONFUSES YOU like it does me. I came to this class with a fair understanding most of this already but the book muddles it up so bad I was forced to abandon use of it.
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