Yep, this is true. Basically, you have to hand out experience points for events as they happen. When a PC gets hit, they get XP for the damage and the crit taken; when a PC hits, they get XP for the damage and crit caused; and so on. And XP for enemies killed, distance traveled, for skill rolls made, and for spells cast.
The books have experience point sheets somewhere in them that help this tracking some, but I just kept a running tally in the .rtf file I used for combat notes. It never seemed terribly complicated to me - IIRC all the sources of XP fit on one page (and if they don't, just make yourself a cheat sheet).
Or, you know, what Aotrs Commander says: ignore the experience point guidelines, give the PCs what you want. That way, they might go up more than 1 level per real year.