OK I'll defend Ye Olde instructor! I did 2 years training ab-initio at BFTS, and 2 years teaching instructors course at CFS in the RAAF. The concepts are the same.
Both flight reviews & teaching a syllabus have certain things to cover and time is a factor. If your instructor has actually thought about the lesson, she has broken it up into maybe 4 different things to teach and allocated time, with 5-10 minutes flex to fix any problem areas before moving along. If the instructor is any good, they will have briefed the key concepts on the ground and introduced any phrases or words they will use airborne; this will save a lot of time airborne. They will also have picked a couple of common errors and showed you how to fix them *on the ground* so you know what they're talking about.
Then airborne, you're in the circuit and having some problems with maintaining an accurate aim point on final. I want to re-demo what a nice fixed aim point looks like, then have enough time to talk you through one and see 1-2 more.
If you're doing 747 circuits, we'll do 2 circuits and run out of time. There's less learning opportunity and we're still burning dollars.
If you're with the instructor, there is an inherent safety net (assuming they know what they're doing and it's not blind freddy with 50 hrs!!!), so what they SHOULD be doing is offloading tasks such as radio, engine management & situational awareness (as required) to allow you to concentrate on the bit that needs work.
So if you want to use your time efficiently, allow them to push you outside your comfort zone, do tight circuits to get 6x instead of 3x in. However if they see you breaking down, they should be offloading tasks and doing some good demo's so you can mimic the core concepts.
Then when you're on your own, fill your boots and take all the time you need and use some of the new skills you just learned.
P.S. Please don't fly wide circuits anyway; you should always be able to glide it in from downwind
