It could be upwards of 15 seconds going through the engine failure mantra until he gets around to "feather."
Sorry but if you're taking 15 seconds to get through the mechanical drill, I would have said something like "you've got the idea but you've got to be up to standard ... I think you need another session of assy circuits." I would not put someone up for a rating test at that standard.
The whole point of this training is to know what really happens (close throttle is a clean best-case engine failure, plenty are more confusing). And to handle it in sensible fashion. Both of these need as realistic practice as can be done safely. When it really happens, you will go into pause mode - minimum pause is good
