Mixed Martial Arts - update

So I've been taking MMA twice a week for 2 weeks now. It's much different than Kung Fu because there are no forms to memorize. The entire class is spent working with a partner using a bag or a kick shield and doing drills. As we do the drills the instructors correct our form. The corrections are really cool because you really can tell the difference between how you were doing a kick, for example, and then how much harder you can kick with corrected form. My usual bag partner is the wife of one of the instructors. She's really good and has an awesome kick! Holding the bag for her is a good work out because I have to tighten my abs to absorb the impact. I bruised my index finger knuckle on my right hand in class on Tuesday during a punching drill. It swelled up massive and at first I thought I might have broken it. I just stuck it out in the class and continued with the drills, then iced it down when I got home. The swelling went down and left behind a nice green bruise. In addition to the bag drills we do a lot of core training to strengthen abs and upper body. I can actually tell that I'm getting stronger because when I went to the gym I had to add more weights to all the machines to get a good work out. I'm not sure if I'll stick with this particular school yet or not. I like the small classes, but I feel like I need to work toward some kind of goal so I can measure my progress. Not having belt levels to attain is a bit of an issue for me.