cliffnemo,
Any one who did not solo, in under 10 hours , washed out. Those who succeeded were then accepted as pilot U/T.
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to get a ride in a Tiger Moth, and the pilot let me have the controls for much of the flight. I was commenting on how "lively" the handling was and we got into a discussion of how those brave young chaps back in the war years got to solo in their alloted 10 hours especially in an aircraft that had to be flown all the way. His view was the calibre of the trainees was much better & that they had time to be focused on getting there as opposed to us GA types who fit flying in around office life, families etc
More recently we had the pleasure of a WW2 Halifax pilot coming to speak at the flying club. I asked him for his thoughts - how did you get to fly a Moth and make it to solo in 10 hours? His view was much more stoic - "One just did it, that's that!"
Either way, you have to be full of admiration for all of those young chaps.