I gained a PPL in 3 weeks and 1 day (GFT aborted due to weather) and enjoyed every minute. Having said that I had read Trevor Thom's books cover to cover and could probably recite relevant chapters from memory, which meant that the theory side was a non-issue
Good information to hear. The key to the success mentioned was a lot of review and self learning before hand. My experience in instructing has shown me that the instruction is like the flowing water, and the student is the sponge. It's the instructor's job to pour water onto the sponge only at a rate at which it's not flowing off, and running down uselessly. The student's job is to grow the sponge, so it can absorb more and more water, without wasting any. This means that the student arrives for the instruction with their sponge well wrung out of all of life's other distractions, and both ready to absorb, and, knowing how much it can absorb (having good questions).
In my early days instructing, I was poor at recognizing when my water was flowing off my student's sponge, and being wasted. Following a flight, we'd debrief, and I'd realize how much I'd taught, that was not retained by the student. The bigger problem was that the student did not know that they had not retained much of what I had taught, they thought they were learning. So, my best students (while I became a better instructor), came to the lesson very well prepared, with lots of questions. When the student had questions, I knew that their learning sponge was well wrung out, and ready to absorb, and I knew what it could absorb. So, I regularly ask my students what questions they have, and what they want to see/learn during that flight. And I pay much more attention to what they are retaining, as I can still saturate their sponge if I'm not paying attention.
I had occasion last month to take a very experienced aeronautical engineer employed by the certification authority right seat during a certification flight test on a modified Cessna Caravan. It was the third time I had flown her during a flight test. While trying to get her to take the controls just for straight and level flight, I got as far as showing how the pedals moved the ball, and I recognized that she was saturated, she returned control to me. This was not because she did not understand what a rudder does, I know she knows that. But, I had already saturated her by explaining the details of he flight test, explaining the warnings we would be hearing during the test, and the chatter with the flight test engineers in the back. The very basic flying did not saturate her, but the whole thing going on around her did.
So, if you want to present yourself for intensive instruction in anything, and make the best use of your time and money, arrive for the instruction having made your personal sponge as big as possible, and well wrung out of other life distractions. Then, pay very close attention to preflight briefings, so you have no questions about the content of the instruction going in, just ready sponge. If you're getting saturated, say so.