The problem isn’t how hard you’re studying. It’s what you don’t realize you’re doing wrong.
That’s the premise that opened Topnotch Talks: Series 02.
Not effort. Not dedication. Not the number of hours logged or resources gathered. The conversation that unfolded that evening pointed to something harder to see – the blind spots that form quietly inside a review process that, from the outside, looks completely fine.
Hosted by Ar. Bernard Berberabe, founder of VIZCODE, the session brought together two of the most recent LEA topnotchers:
- Ar. Mikhail Ocampo — LEA Top 3
- Ar. Jansey Santos — LEA Top 5
The format was intentionally casual. No rankings on display, no formal presentations. Just honest dialogue with future architects who are, right now, deep in their preparation for the Licensure Examination for Architects.
What came out wasn’t a playbook. It was something more useful: a mirror.
The Scope Trap
The LEA covers a wide range of subjects. Everyone knows this. And almost everyone responds to it the same way- by trying to cover as much ground as possible, pulling resources from every direction, building a review pile that grows faster than it can be read.
Ar. Jansey Santos named this early in the session. The instinct to gather more material feels like diligence, but it quietly pulls focus away from what actually shows up in the exam. The basics- the foundational questions that appear consistently across past exams and refreshers- don’t disappear. They stay. And candidates who are busy chasing scope often leave those points behind.
Her advice was grounded: check everything you’re reviewing against the official exam syllabus. If it’s outside scope, it’s outside priority. Especially for those with limited time left, the basics aren’t the starting point. They’re the whole point.
Memorization Is Not Preparation
Ar. Mikhail Ocampo addressed something that runs deeper than study technique.
There’s a belief – widespread and almost invisible because of how reasonable it sounds—that if you’ve memorized enough, you’re ready. The LEA doesn’t work that way. The exam is situational. It places you inside a realistic scenario and asks what an architect would actually do. Recognition of facts doesn’t translate to performance under that kind of pressure.
What Mikhail emphasized was the relationship between subjects—how every topic connects to the others, how even subjects that feel minor carry weight in how you approach different questions. Understanding those relationships, not just holding isolated information, is what holds up when the pressure is real.
This wasn’t framed as a strategy. It was framed as a reality check.
The Study Technique Nobody Audits
One of the sharper exchanges of the evening came when Ar. Bernard raised a question most reviewees quietly carry: why do some people study for a year—consistently—and still not pass?
Both topnotchers pointed to the same answer: the technique itself.
Ar. Jansey was candid about how she approached this. Before committing to full-time review, she made one decision that shaped everything else- she was going to find what actually worked for her, not replicate what worked for someone else. She didn’t use flashcards. She didn’t model her schedule after her batchmates. She built a system around how she learned and stayed with it.
The mistake she was describing isn’t laziness. It’s borrowed discipline – following someone else’s method because it looks effective, then wondering why the results don’t match.
For those with weeks left before the exam: this is still worth auditing.
When You Quiz Yourself Matters More Than You Think
This surfaced during the Q&A portion of the session, and it’s one of the more practical insights from the evening.
Ar. Jansey described a pattern she noticed during her own review. When she studied something and immediately tested herself on it, she performed well – because the material was fresh. But that result, she realized, wasn’t an accurate measure of retention. It was a measure of recency.
What changed her approach was introducing a gap. Study in the morning. Return to that material the next day – or two days later. Quiz then. That delay exposed what had actually been retained versus what had simply been recognized.
Inside the exam room, you won’t be answering questions right after reading. The space between study and recall is where real retention lives. Closing that gap too quickly creates a false confidence that doesn’t hold.
The Subjects Most Candidates Leave Exposed
There was agreement across the session on which areas carry the most unaddressed risk.
Structural conceptualization, building utilities, and building technology came up consistently – not as difficult for their own sake, but because most reviewees treat them as secondary. Ar. Mikhail was straightforward: these subjects appeared in the exam in ways that required genuine understanding of how building systems work together. Not computation. Understanding.
Ar. Jansey raised a different blind spot: professional practice. The coverage is clear, the question style is familiar, and that familiarity makes it easy to deprioritize. But professional practice questions appear in every LEA. They’re among the most objective points available. Leaving them under-reviewed isn’t strategic – it’s leaving a known opportunity behind.
The balance both topnotchers described wasn’t about ignoring weaknesses or overloading on them. It was about containing them – giving them focused, time-limited attention – then returning to the full picture.
The Final Month Is Not the Time to Add More
When asked what they’d change about their preparation in the month before the exam, neither topnotcher talked about studying more.
Ar. Mikhail reflected on how he had approached that final stretch- and acknowledged that an overly rigid schedule, however disciplined it looks, creates its own kind of pressure. The kind that compounds. The kind that leads to burnout precisely when composure matters most. What worked better was responding to what his mind and body were actually ready to absorb, not forcing output on a fixed timetable.
By the final month, the work should already exist. That period isn’t for building- it’s for stabilizing. For candidates who understand that distinction, the final weeks feel less like a sprint and more like calibration.
Some of what was shared about that phase stayed inside the room. But the posture was clear: less intensity, more control.
What the Topnotchers Said About Mindset—and Why It Lands Differently Coming From Them
Mindset is a word that gets overused. In this conversation, it came up differently.
Ar. Jansey acknowledged something directly: the worries future architects are carrying right now are legitimate. The sacrifices made, the jobs paused, the people waiting on results- those pressures are real, and she didn’t minimize them. She spoke from the other side of them.
Her point was specific: topics can be taught. Other people can cover material with you. But the mental conditioning going into exam day- the ability to stay composed when anxiety arrives, to access what you’ve prepared when it counts- that’s work only you can do. And it doesn’t happen on its own.
She’d seen it in her own batch. Candidates who were prepared, who had done the work, who didn’t get through- not because the knowledge wasn’t there, but because something else wasn’t ready.
This was only part of what she shared. Some of it is better heard directly.
Closing
The biggest mistakes in LEA preparation don’t announce themselves. They live inside habits that feel productive, schedules that look disciplined, and approaches borrowed from people whose results you’re hoping to replicate.
The topnotchers who joined Series 02 weren’t there to give a formula. They were there to name what they’d seen – in themselves and in the candidates around them- so that the people still in the middle of it have something to adjust before it’s too late.
Awareness is what separates the approach that holds from the one that quietly doesn’t.
And the ones who rise- adjust early.
Some insights are better experienced in the room. And this was only part of the conversation.
Topnotch Talks is hosted by Ar. Bernard Berberabe, Founder of VIZCODE—built to make architecture learning clearer, faster, and actually usable for LEA candidates.
— VIZCODE Team
