This time last year, London was littered with tourists basking in the late afternoon sun on whatever patch of grass (or concrete) happened to be nearest. The Barbican, Tates, Hayward, British Library and RA were all hosting incredibly interesting exhibitions. Various gigs and shows were on that would have blown me away. But they didn't. And how do I remember all this so vividly? Because last year was the year that never was for me. No Easter, no Birthday, no summer. Because I was right here at this desk, preparing for my Part 3.

It took a year of hard graft, learning contracts inside out, assessing the pros and cons of various procurement routes, analysing the different approaches I should have taken in my career and my case study. So after a full 11 month slog cut off from the rest of humanity, I was overjoyed to receive my sparklingly yellow ARB certificate declaring to the whole world that my mother could finally refer to me as an Architect at dinner parties with her friends.

Whilst I spun around on my chair in subdued celebration and anticipation of the champagne quaffage to come (which was in fact replaced with the aforementioned redundancy letter), one Scandinavian member of our office looked over my shoulder and said "Oh yes, I should really send off my forms for that".

Forms? Just forms? No exam? No revision? No comprehension of the responsibilities of an architect? No understanding of the legally binding contractual documents? And all this beside the fact that I had to explain what Building Regulations were earlier that week...

Now I've worked with architects from the States, one of which was the most highly competent architects I have ever worked with. Yet for a US "architect" - who has run multimillion pound jobs on site, designed entire urban schemes from scratch to resolved detail, coordinated international construction projects - to become a UK Architect, they have to start from Part 1. Which seems like a waste of time to everyone involved for me, but a highly profitable source of revenue for EhAreBee.

If such draconian measures are in place to enforce regularity of standards across the board, shouldn't they be applied to all members? Or not at all? Why not make everyone sit the Part 3? And why should this contravene EU Regulations?!: