Yeah EK don't get me wrong - I'm not willy waving (wouldn't want to knock you out with all that 'experience' of mine!! lol) - don't have that much experience either compared to anybody else who's beginning their career. Actually the weather in general wasn't too bad, just a tad breezier than forecast!! As you would, I made the weather assessment based on the information available. On that day, we were within limits to go.
I think a lot of companies teach different holding techniques (not sure?) to get you back to the beacon. I was once shown something in the sim with a 15 degree single drift from a direction which required 3 x drift application into wind on the outbound leg. Not my prettiest ever hold!! Ok, forget the details, but I just wanted to say that we'd covered that training point in the sim, so on that particular test day I didn't feel like there was anything there which would be reducing my chances of passing! But everybody is different and if you hadn't have wanted to go well, that would have been your decision and that's fine.
Hope that answers your question. Feel free to PM me.