Quite an interesting topic since I may be on the receiving end in a couple of month when I will start my training.
So may I ask those questions:
I understand that learning is not a linear phase and there might be some period where you reach a plateau before learning stuff again, but at what point/flight time/number of lessons do you consider a student being hopeless? Is it like the first 2-3hrs, after 10 lessons, what's an average?
On the other end, is there a way I could consider MYSELF hopeless if my instructor is just here to build hours and does not say a word about this?