the classes were part of my schooling. 4 "semesters" as they call it. 9 weeks each. you take small tests on the chapters as you go and then a final exam (which is just questions from those chapters on a longer test....same questions even for the most part). all the tests in the class are online and multiple choice. and once you've taken cisco 1-4, you can take the real test (which costs money of course). it's like $100 to take the major test i think. and it's not multiple choice (some of it might be, but definitely not all of it). it's mostly hand-on....you have to fix a problem, or set up routers and switches and stuff. i know i wouldn't have passed the test if i took it because we didn't learn all the stuff we would have needed.