or are you just expected to read the books and pick it up from that?
Pretty much ...
You'll receive a box of books/files with maybe the same material on a CD ROM. You read through, make notes if that's how you like to study and every so often the study material will require you to submit a progress test to your training provider.
There will be brush-up courses where you sit in a classroom. This is you opportunity to get any difficult subjects explained to you on an individual basis.
Different training providers have different course structures and the reason that I didn't use Bristol was that they divide the subjects into two modules with two 2-week brush up courses with the exams after. I couldn't get that amount of time off work as a block so I used another school (now bust) who let me divide the course into three modules.
It's like studying for PPL (only the books are thicker and it's not as interesting).
Cheers
Whirls