For context: I am an American university student at present. Here (or at least, at my university), you are given a syllabus for each course at the beginning of the semester. There will also be a series of intermediate assignments during the course, at which you'll get a sense of whether or not you're grasping the material at the right pace. Additionally, class sizes at my university are fairly small from what I've heard (rarely more than 40-50 students, but often closer to 20 for more niche courses.) As such, you are encouraged to accept (and ask for) feedback from the professor(s) and any Teaching Assistants there are. Supposedly this is different at some more famous universities (like Yale or Harvard) that have class sizes in the hundreds.
This question was inspired by a browsing session yesterday. I was reading the Studying page on the English-language Germany subreddit just for the hell of it. According to this wiki, class sizes are far greater in German universities, and there will generally be no individual assignments. Instead, it will all boil down to the final exam, and you won't really know if you've studied enough during the semester until that exam is placed in front of you. Personally, I would find this method of studying very stressful (since there are no tangible "checkpoints" or benchmarks to meet), but then, maybe I'm just too accustomed to the American model.
So I guess what I'm asking is this: Which of these better describes the university you went to, and do you like it that way?