There are lots of instructors who don't give a test per say, but do basically the same things you are being asked to do before solo. Every instructor takes the student through some sort of test weather the student knows it or not. One thing I like to do when flying with a student before solo is while he is flying, I let go of the trainer switch just long enough to put the plane in a really strange attitude without him knowing it. He has to recover. This happens at odd times during all phases of flight. It is good to get them to understand how to recover from unusuall attitudes.