Im still a student, but so far what I can say is it depends on the instructor more than anything else. I started a couple of years ago (don't run away... yet.. - the flying school went bust and hogged down some of my hard-earned cash while they were at it), and my then-instructor enjoyed the fact we were in C152 aerobats. Sprial dives were his thing, without bothering to tell me what the hell he was up to. Hated it, and it seems to have rubbed off a bit on stalls. Hate them. Been once with my new(er) instructor, wasn't too bad. Need to repeat soonish, as the rust has already set in.
R/T so far is ok-ish, except I do find I get a bit flustered when ATC say anything I'm not expecting in, say, a clearance to enter the Solent airspace. One day I'll get the hang of it. I think the current problem is I've been stuck doing circuits during winter, mostly thanks to too high cross wind.