Morgans wrote:

Did you also have to pass a commercial checkride at
the end of the 12 hours?

Not at all. This was just to move up to the aircraft, not to obtain my
commercial. About half those hours were flying in real IMC to get used to
handling the aircraft in an IFR setting, which I don't believe is part of
the commercial training, is it?

In any regard, I doubt I would have passed the commercial checkride after
those 12 hours/

I would think you would want to be more than (in
your words) "more or less comfortable with the added workload and speed"
before you had to pass a checkride, with all of the added pressures and
nervousness that "automatically" comes with a checkride.

Agreed.

--
Peter