Bandit,
What, out of interest, was the "correct" phraseology according to the check pilot?
"On climb" and "on descent" drives me nuts and it really shouldn't as they are only words, but the fact that the AIP has been messed with so badly that no one knows what they are supposed to do these days annoys me.
As I was once told "specificity is the key to all good communication" and the way that the AIP has been hacked and destroyed makes it nearly impossible to find definitive answers on many things - perhaps this is the intended result! If it isn't easily found then no one can say you are wrong.....