Lots of sensible opinions here, I'd just like to chip in on one point not discussed so far.
The compass (or the DI, which is the instrument in front of you on the instrument panel), is used for navigations - of course. However, as a PPL you'd do a majority of your flying visually, rather that by reference to instruments. So by having you flying to a point you could see, rather than follow a compass heading, the instructor is introducing good PPL-flying practice at the earliest stage.
Adding a couple of points to that:
- Worrying about height keeping on a trial lesson is just going to overload a student: you may well have been going up or down a few hundred feet in your turns, and I really wouldn't worry about that.
- Yes, the C152 needs very little rudder in shallow turns with the flaps up. This is normal. Steeper turns, and turns in the landing configuration, you'll need a bit more.
- Turning the radio down so that you and the instructor could talk relatively uninterupted also makes good sense to me.
- If you were showing more than casual interest in the flying, then personally I do think that a rather longer and more robust debrief was in order.
G