Thankyou to everyone for the great replies; I have plenty of faith in my instructors but it's good to be able to get confirmation from a broader group of people sometimes.
Off topic, but I think one of the best things about this forum is that it gives people (especially student pilots) an opportunity to ask questions to not only other pilots, but to controllers, LAME's and the whole gamut of the industry. It's one thing to read about tracking tolerances and frequency monitoring in the AIP and another to have someone give good, solid, real-life examples of how and when it's applied. It helps to make things a lot more relevant, which can only be a good thing.
Thanks again to everyone who answered, and especially to Track Shortener for filling me in on the ATC side of things. And thanks for not getting narky and pointing me at CASR 781a.VII.231a.
