I did mine at Purdue University Airfield, Lafayette IN, USA in 1997/1998.
I was working in Lafayette and it was an ideal opportunity to get the FAA IR.
Mine was actually 40+hrs of actual flying in a C172SP (zero sim time).
Also most of the flying time was night because of our various work commitments which made cheating under the hood far less easy.
The IR - another license to learn,
WP
SB - great minds think alike, eh? !!