TELC test
A month ago I did the Russian certification test, TELC B1. This is a test worldwide recognized that gives value to your resume, no matter what personal reasons you have to learn Russian but I assure you that is always good to have a prove of your knowledge.
At the beginning I had a rough time due to the long texts and new words. It made me feel frustrated and tired telling news at the beginning of the class because I could not read an article completely in Russian. Most of the time you have to put extra effort, I remember that only 3 weeks after coming back to school and refusing from reading news I could start to understand more and more, I read articles without any inconvenience on the newspaper and magazines and out of the whole text there were only 10 unknown words.
Certainly is not a easy step; however the forward you go, the more difficult it gets but in a good way. One week previous the exam, it is mandatory to take five preparatory lessons, there you will hear conversations, participate in a discussion with the teacher and write letters. The test is always happening after class, usually on Friday but the dates regularly change.
The TELC B2 is shorter because you listen to the conversations only once. There is of course the Russian test version TRKI, which is a very complex examination; most of the time is mandatory requirement for those who wish to study in Russian universities or to work in Russia.
Maybe if you are looking for something more challenging you can give it a try.