PMA LONG COURSE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

PMA Long Course at a glance

Marital status is a hard requirement: candidates must be unmarried. The one exception in the official criteria is married serving Armed Forces personnel who are over 20 years of age. Weight is assessed against Body Mass Index rather than a fixed figure. Candidates must be citizens of Pakistan or domicile holders of Azad Kashmir or Gilgit-Baltistan; on final selection, anyone holding dual nationality, a Green Card, an Iqama or a residence permit must surrender their non-Pakistani nationality.

Age limits by education

There is no single PMA Long Course age limit — the ceiling moves with the qualification you apply on, and only the first two tiers carry a relaxation. The relaxation of three months applies to both the upper and the lower limit, which matters for candidates who are a few weeks short of 17 or a few weeks past the ceiling on the closing date.

Age is calculated against the closing date of the intake you are applying for, which is why the official portal is the only reliable place to confirm whether you fall inside the window. If you want a quick answer across every Army, Navy and Air Force entry rather than PMA Long Course alone, run our eligibility checker — it asks for your age, education, height and domicile and returns every programme you currently qualify for.

Marks requirements

The baseline academic requirement is 60% marks in FA/FSc or an equivalent qualification. Around that baseline sit four separate relaxations, and candidates frequently miss out because they do not realise one of them applies to them.

Who is not eligible

The official criteria list a set of conditions that make a candidate ineligible for PMA Long Course. They are reproduced below as published on the Pakistan Army recruitment portal.

1. 01Candidates rejected twice by ISSB (declared “Not Recommended” on two occasions).
2. 02Candidates who have failed the initial tests (intelligence and academic) three times — they become ineligible for future PMA Long Courses.
3. 03Candidates appearing within 4 months (120 days) of a previous ISSB appearance, unless a waiver is granted by the competent authority.
4. 04Candidates dismissed, removed or debarred from government service, including the Armed Forces.
5. 05Candidates convicted by a court of law for a heinous offence.
6. 06Candidates permanently declared unfit by an Appeal Medical Board (PUF by AMB), or declared unfit by any Armed Forces hospital unless cleared by the Appeal Medical Board. Pakistan Air Force candidates found unfit for flying but fit for ground branches may take the routine medical as normal candidates.
7. 07Candidates medically unfit due to Hepatitis B and C — no Appeal Medical Board appeal is admissible in these cases.
8. 08Candidates withdrawn from a bonded Armed Forces college or institution on disciplinary grounds, and candidates withdrawn, discharged, resigned or who purchased commission from any officers academy.
9. 09Candidates found to have tampered with, forged or concealed information in academic certificates — such candidates are permanently ineligible for all types of commission.
10. 10Candidates who test positive in a drug test at CMH, a Military Hospital or AFIP — permanently unfit for PMA.

Selection procedure, step by step

PMA Long Course selection runs in a fixed sequence. Each stage is eliminatory: candidates who fail one do not proceed to the next.

1. Step 01 · Online registration

   Registration is online only, through www.joinpakarmy.gov.pk. The examination roll-number slip is generated in approximately five to seven working days, and the test date and time printed on it cannot be changed. Because registration and the tests themselves are computerized, a working knowledge of computers is required. The registration and examination fee is deposited at the National Bank of Pakistan GHQ Branch, and proof of deposit must be brought on the test day. Candidates who have previously applied through a Technical Cadet Course count as repeaters; a first-time PMA Long Course applicant is treated as a fresh candidate even if they have appeared at ISSB for the Navy or Air Force.

2. Step 02 · Preliminary written and intelligence tests

   Held at the Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs). The written module is a set of multiple-choice tests covering English, Mathematics, Pakistan Studies, Islamiat and General Knowledge, alongside intelligence testing, plus essay writing in English and Urdu. This is the stage at which the largest number of candidates is eliminated, and it is the stage most directly improved by practice — see our free MCQ practice for the same subjects.

3. Step 03 · Physical test

   Three events, all mandatory. Failing any one of them counts as failure of the physical test, and a candidate who fails it is not issued an ISSB form.

   Event	Standard
   Run	1 km in 8 minutes
   Push-ups	15 in 2 minutes
   Sit-ups	15 in 2 minutes

4. Step 04 · Medical examination

   A medical examination is conducted as part of preliminary selection, checking height against the 5'4" (162.5 cm) minimum, weight against Body Mass Index, and general fitness. Candidates declared permanently unfit by an Appeal Medical Board, or unfit due to Hepatitis B or C, are ineligible.

5. Step 05 · Preliminary selection board interview

   The interview is conducted by a board headed by the Selection & Recruitment Officer (SRO), assisted by a psychologist. Before the interview, candidates write a ten-line essay in English and in Urdu on the topic of the day. The interview is marked out of 20, and a score below 12 is a failure— which again means no ISSB form. Assessors look at expression and confidence in both English and Urdu, current affairs, geography and Pakistan Studies, overall outlook, and extracurricular activities, sports and hobbies. A character certificate form, verified by a gazetted officer and the principal of the candidate's institution, must be submitted at the AS&RC within five working days. Candidates who pass the preliminaries are issued Form ‘D’.

6. Step 06 · Merit nomination to ISSB

   AS&RCs enter the physical test and interview marks into the selection module, and nomination to ISSB is made on merit through the Personnel Administration Directorate. Passing the preliminaries does not by itself guarantee an ISSB call — the merit position does.

7. Step 07 · Inter Services Selection Board

   A four- to five-day residential assessment at an ISSB centre, covering screening and intelligence tests, the psychologist's written tests, Group Testing Officer tasks, and an individual interview, closing with the conference. This is the decisive stage of the whole process, and it is covered in detail in the next section.

8. Step 08 · Detailed medical at CMH

   Candidates recommended by ISSB undergo a detailed medical examination at the nearest Combined Military Hospital. A positive drug test at CMH, a Military Hospital or AFIP renders a candidate permanently unfit for PMA.

9. Step 09 · Final selection at GHQ

   Final selection is made at General Headquarters on the basis of overall performance. Where the number of selected candidates exceeds the induction requirement, the remaining candidates are considered for the next PMA Long Course entry, subject to eligibility and merit.

10. Step 10 · Two years at PMA Kakul

    Selected cadets report to the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, for two years of training before being commissioned into the Pakistan Army.

After the initials: the ISSB stage

Everything up to Form ‘D’ is a filter. The Inter Services Selection Board is where the actual decision is made. Candidates who clear the preliminaries and are nominated on merit report to an ISSB centre for a residential assessment lasting four to five days, and the board's recommendation is the finding that carries weight at GHQ. Reaching ISSB is an achievement in itself; converting it into a recommendation is a different problem, and one that a strong FSc result does very little to solve.

The assessment runs on three independent streams that are cross-referenced against each other. The psychologist's tests are written and timed — the Word Association Test, the Situation Reaction Test, Sentence Completion, and the Picture Story test — and they are read for personality, emotional stability and consistency rather than for correct answers. The Group Testing Officer tasks are outdoor and group-based: group discussion, group planning, individual and group obstacles, and a command task in which one candidate leads the rest. The interviewing officer conducts a long individual interview covering your background, motivation, awareness and self-knowledge. On conference day the three assessors reconcile what they have seen into a single recommendation.

Because the streams are cross-referenced, a rehearsed persona tends to fall apart — what preparation genuinely buys you is familiarity with the formats, control of your timing, and the confidence that comes from having done the tests before under the clock rather than meeting them for the first time in Kohat or Malir. If you are new to the process, start with what the ISSB actually is and our overview of ISSB eligibility and procedure.

Documents checklist

Candidates must produce the following at the Army Selection & Recruitment Centre. Missing paperwork is one of the most avoidable reasons candidates are turned away on the test day.

• ▪Original certificates and detailed mark sheets of Matric, FA/FSc or equivalent qualifications, plus one set of attested photocopies.
• ▪CNIC for candidates aged 18 and above, or a computerized Form B together with the guardian's CNIC for candidates under 18. The old manual NIC is not accepted.
• ▪Three passport-size colour photographs, attested on both front and back by the principal of the institution or a Class-1 gazetted officer.
• ▪Repeater candidates: the original and a photocopy of the ISSB “NOT RECOMMENDED” letter.

PMA Long Course eligibility — frequently asked questions