Asking about what exercises had been done...that's a very good point. I'd be really interested to know too. So, for those of you who soloed in single digit hours, could you possibly post what exercises you'd done, and how long of each. Because I think you have to do at least a couple of hours of stall recovery. And I too can't see how you could fit it all in to less than ten hours, and I'm curious.
Ok, I solo'd relatively quickly, here are my first exercises:
Flight 1 - Trial flight
Flight 2 - Effects of controls
Flight 3 - Straight and level
Flight 4 - Climbing and descending and medium turns
Flight 5 - Basic stalls
Flight 6 - Circuits
Flight 7 - Circuits
Flight 8 - Circuits
Flight 9 - Circuit emergencies
Flight 10 - Circuits, diversion airfield check, engine failures
Flight 11 - Circuits
Flight 12 - Solo
Each flight was about half an hour (shortest 0.4, longest 0.7) in an uncongested environment requiring minimal transit times to the training area. I flew once a week as that was all I could afford. My instructor was aware of my finances and tried to be efficient with his training regime.
I'd also previously flown a glider to solo so many of the initial lessons were just a refresher.