Qualifications
The RICS APC, explained end to end
Competency levels, the submission timeline, and what the final assessment day actually involves.
Updated 28 Jun 2026 · 9 min read
The Assessment of Professional Competence is the route to MRICS. It is a structured record of experience assessed against a set of competencies, followed by an interview.
The competency levels
- Level 1 — knowledge and understanding. You can explain it.
- Level 2 — application. You have done it, on real projects.
- Level 3 — reasoned advice. You have advised a client and can defend the reasoning.
Most candidates underestimate Level 3. It requires examples where you gave advice and something turned on it.
Timeline
The structured training route typically takes 24 months and 400 recorded days. Preliminary review comes first, then the final submission, then assessment day. Build in three months of writing time at the end — the summary of experience and case study take longer than anyone expects.
Assessment day
A ten-minute presentation on your case study, then roughly fifty minutes of questions across your declared competencies and the mandatory ones. Assessors probe for the reasoning behind decisions, not the decisions themselves.