Dear Apprentice:

Greetings!

Deciding to take the Architecture Licensure Examination is a serious and mature decision for an architecture apprentice like you. The ALE is a difficult exam…but to whom is it difficult? It is complicated to those who are ill-prepared, has an inferior training, and has a shallow understanding about architecture.

Generally speaking, the board exam result ranges only from 27%-32% national passing rate, why is this so?

We have identified two reasons for this. First is the students’ inferior foundation due to obsolete teaching methods, rigid curricula, and poor learning environment. Second are the limited apprenticeship activities because nobody monitors their training but themselves. Architecture most especially of today is so complex, cross-cultural, and continuously evolving. Therefore, studying it must require innovative, creative, and inclusive learning methods.

The local ALE has changed into a more mature evaluation process because of the contemporary culture of the profession and the demands of the industry. Reviewing architecture’s academicals and practical subjects is a serious and laborious process. It is best for a board exam candidate to enter a formal review program rather than to study alone. Entering a formal review program should assure you of the following:

• Provide a scholastic and practical set-ups in your studies.
• Update you in present and future issues, trends, problems, and innovations of the profession
• Fill the information gaps that you experienced in schools and offices
• Build a higher level of self-esteem and confidence in taking the examination
• Open a wide possibility for personal and professional networks

But the critical question is…Who will you trust?

Enrolling in a review program must have a cautious consideration. We suggest the following things you must consider in choosing a review provider:
1. The Goal of the review provider
2. The Program
3. The Teachers
4. The Teaching Methodologies
5. The Learning Activities
6. The Learning Environment
7. The Learning Materials

These are the most important and critical things to consider because these are the core of any review program. All of these should be clear, comprehensive, innovative, creative, and should answer your needs neither just as a candidate for the exam nor as an apprentice but more so as a real student of architecture that needs a deeper understanding of architecture.

The brown bauhaus is more than the ordinary review center. We do not want to be called  just a review center because its name connotes one thing: BUSINESS. We exist on a specific mission and not just to earn money. The Studio is an alternative venue of architecture education where we offer various programs that will augment the wide and deep loopholes of local formal schooling and apprenticeship of architecture. We believe that both the local education and practice offer insufficient opportunities in understanding and practicing architecture. Architecture is a very complex discipline and yet our local schools operate in near obsolete learning systems. We believe that our academic training is experiencing a decay, and the brown bauhaus acts like a SALT, as a preservative to the good things in architecture education.

At the brown bauhaus, we don’t short-cut the review system, but instead we provide a holistic and detailed study of each subject with innovative and generative learning activities in a stimulating studio atmosphere. With us, you will learn and develop a design studio culture that will change your perception in architecture and will enable you to answer the exam with great confidence.

Modesty aside, our students who passed and even those who failed the exam testify that we have the most potent review program as compared to other review providers. We are too, oftentimes being commented that our system is a far cry from their previous academic training because we do not only prepare you for the board exam but more for your upcoming practice.

It is the tireless passion, excitement, and curiosity in learning architecture that made us decide to enter this field. And we would love to share these to you…unselfishly.

I hope we will meet each other soon. With our teachers and students together in our studio, let’s study architecture.

Thank you and God speed!

Sincerely yours,

Walther N. Ocampo,  tbc, uap
Studio Master