Any Geologists Here?

So I'm in the environmental consulting world working as a geologist and have been considering taking the fundamentals of geology. Well actually I am signed up for taking it this spring.

Curious if any fellow GRMers have gone through this relatively recently and could point me to any helpful study guides, books or courses. I've heard the the regreview.com materials are pretty good, but that's about it.

I'm a little nervous for some of the hard rock geology portions of the test since I haven't dealt with any of these materials in 5-6 years since I took those classes and I pretty much only have to deal with soil and hydro stuff in my daily work.

Any help is much appreciated!!

I spend 6 years learning it in college a decade ago. Not sure how much that helps. What exactly does it cover? It it more overview global/continental scale geology, or is it small scale structural stuff or are you getting down into naming rocks and minerals? Geology covers a pretty wide range of stuff and you could spend a lot of time learning/remembering things that have no relevance to what you need.

Sounds like you have to get in on that kind of career on the ground level. Is there a lot of pressure? What about erosion of talent in the field?

slefain wrote: Sounds like you have to get in on that kind of career on the ground level. Is there a lot of pressure? What about erosion of talent in the field?

Geology rocks.

I think he's referring to the AIPG tests to become a Professional Geologist.

That's gneiss. Don't take it for granite.

1988RedT2 wrote: That's gneiss. Don't take it for granite.

This. Otherwise you shale find yourself in a world of schist.

You guys are behaving like a bunch of moraines.

My sediments exactly. Sounds like you'll need to dig deep through layers and layers, study hard, and don't crack or shift.

Well in school I learned it asbestos I could. As PHeller refered to this is the test for the fundamentals portion of the professional geologists licensing. I still have a few years before I would be qualified to take the PG exam but i figured I should take this before I forget any more.

In reply to slefain: I am already in the field and this is just something I would like to do to further my career. Nothing that will directly affect me at the moment, but will let me move in to project management roles in the future or contribute to bids or work plans due to my licensure.

In reply to mazdeuce: The exam covers pretty much the entire field of geology; Minerology, Hydrogeology, Soils, Evolutionary Geology, Environmental Geology, Stratigraphy, etc. So I need to be fluent with everything. I am very comfortable with the soils and hydro portion of it since I excelled most at these topics in school and use the topics on a daily basis.

So do Geologists give advice or just euphemisms?

1988RedT2 wrote: Don't take it for granite.

I am continually amazed at the number of people who think that's the real saying.

As a lover of intelligent word play I approve of this thread.

Got it, I thought that might be what you were referring to, but I wasn't sure. My professional experience was all (briefly) in the geology/geophysics side of the oil industry and my wife continues to punch wells to bring home the bacon.
I have friends in hard rock mining and in environmental geology and it's pretty amazing that we all started with the same education. Best of luck.

I too work in the environmental consulting field and have thrown around the idea of going the PG route or one of the certifications NREP offers.

While I have not taken any steps yet to go the PG route, the link you posted is a good reference and talking with some of the PGs I work with, they have said in the past that the best thing is just to break out the college books and brush up on things again. When they last took the test (which is a good number of years ago), they said it was more factual cut and dry questions rather than applied or situational. That may have changed though.