.. FAA IR with night qual
Bose-X, FYI, I don't think I was 'beating the system' as you imply, but last October when doing my FAA IR I did the night work as required for the FAA PPL (10 full stop landings + > 3 hours at night + >100nm XC). Both the flight school and the examiner required this to be done before I could take my IR test - they were insistent that I had to have done everything required for a FAA PPL (practical aspects, not the exam).