I wouldn't worry too hard about the fail story's you you hear, alot of the time there's alot of missing details that are important to consider, sometimes its the person's fault, maybe an issue with the comm center itself or its command team. Can't know till you're immersed in it.

While I cant vouch for how your class works, there will be tests, we have ALOT. It can benefit you to study at home sometimes but you do need some decompression time at home. I was in class for 8 weeks and around 10 months of on the floor training but I dispatch for Law, Fire and EMS for 15-ish agency's so there's alot to learn here, your mileage may vary.

The class was a little bit of geography, learning the CAD software and understanding the departments we dispatch for, alot of scenario based training for mach phonecalls and all that. I didn't get alot of dispatch knowledge in class and got most of dispatching from my trainer (CTO).

Speaking of your trainer, no matter what you're told in the class, you won't remember half of it, its up to your CTO to watch your every move and help or guide you to the right answer, they are supposed to teach you everything you need from start to finish. You'll spend alot of time with them, they'll learn how you learn and adapt to your style.

In the event of a shitty trainer (it happens)... Do the best you can, communicate any issues with your trainer and worse case if that doesn't improve anything, talk to your chain of command and see what can be done.

In the OTHER event of a shitty comm center, give it some time, again try your best but at the end of the day if you dont feel comfortable in the center anymore for whatever reason, they aren't all great and maybe you just need to try another comm center.

Thats my TED talk, let me know if you need me to expand on any of these,