Tech Cert 5837 Survey?

[jamiel]

I have my tech cert management day coming up in October. I'm looking for some help/advice especially with the BS5837 survey part. I'm a bit confused as to what we will actually have to do on the day. I couldn't afford the treelife 3 day prep course, so I'm a bit in the dark:confused1:!

 

Does anyone who has done the tech cert have any tips or advice?

 

Any past papers/questions would be a great help!

 

Thanks

[Paul Barton]

They normally show you a small parcel of land and then give you a 'scenario' on the question paper. For example, you have a patch of grass with some scattered trees on it and the scenario is that there is a proposal to build a new car park of a certain dimension with an access road leading to it.

 

You then need to survey all the trees as per the BS, recommend which can be remove and which should be retained, and draw a tree constraints plan showing the root protection areas. You can then recommend where the best location of the car park should be once you have decided which trees can be felled and where the RPAs of the retained trees are.

 

You may also need to draw a tree protection plan to show where fencing and/or ground protection will be needed.

 

So, in essence the brief will probably be:

- survey all the trees and record the data

- produce a scaled tree constraints plan (and tree protection plan)

- write a short report of the main recommendations and precautions.

And all in about 1.5 hours!!

 

But remember.....the unit (as far as it was when I did it) is called 'Trees and Development' not 'the BS5837 unit'. Therefore it is entirely possible that you could get a scenario about utilities and NJUG guidelines instead! I don't think this has happened before but it is posssible.

[sloth]

Read the question very carefully, and only do what's needed! Ie, don't work out rpa of trees to be removed or within the rpa of another tree, they only want to see you can work it out once or twice really.

Divide your time equally between q's and don't get caught up with the actual surveying, look how many points are per question.

If its ok with the mods I can post the examiners report from a couple of years back. I don't think its copyrighted, and is an interesting and useful read...

[Theocus]

As Paul said read up on NJUG and Utilities, memorise the BS5837 survey table, take a scaled ruler with you with 1:500 scale on!

Generally familiarise yourself with site development procedures, technologies etc! Temporary surfaces, permeable carparks surfaces etc etc. Its a crazy test but read the question and answer only what is asked. Practice measuring trees quickly, ie measure one well and approximate the ones next to it based on the initial measurement. Its rough but fast!

 

Good Luck!

[jamiel]

Thanks so much for the advice guys : ) I think I'm getting a better idea of what we will have to do on the day. Its just going to be hard fitting it all in to 90 mins (not including 10mins oral question time!).

 

Sloth: the examiners report would be great if possible.