Elise Cooper Lim ranked 4th in the Interior Design (ID) Licensure Examination while Jennica Presilda Curato placed 7th in the Architect Licensure Examination (ALE), and USC earned the distinction of 2nd best performing school in the country with an 89.69% (87 out of 97) passing in the ALE.

The Philippine Professional Regulation Commission held the ID exams on June 23-25 in Manila, while the ALE was held on June 28 and 30 in Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, Legazpi, and Zamboanga cities.

Lim leads 12 out of 17 (70.59%) examinees in the ID examination; only 211 out of 320 examinees passed for a national passing rate of 65.94%. Approximately the same passing rate was observed for the ALE, albeit with more examinees nationwide; 2,104 successfully hurdled the ALE out of 3,172 examinees (66.33%).

Archt. Curato found out about her achievement from friends, disbelieving at first. “My only goal was to pass the exams and I just knew that I had to give my best on the exam day,” Curato said. “My daily prayer was that God would allow me and my friends to pass the exams and that I may also be a help to them during the review.”

Asked what was the toughest part of the ALE, Curato said that the coverage and not knowing what to prioritize to study and what to let go was her greatest challenge. “I (had) to figure out what study pattern works for me and disciplined myself to set a weekly schedule and stick to it,” she said.

Reflecting on her preparation at USC, she acknowledged that the most important aspect of her architecture education and apprenticeship was learning proper time management, organizing and prioritizing tasks to meet deadlines. In the end, she said, “I asked God to guide me through the whole journey. It is best to rely on Him than on myself because I knew I couldn’t get through this challenge without His help.”

With reporting from Karl Aries Emerson Cabilao

Tags: Architecture, Interior Design, alumni