This is how I felt early on in my training too. My first instructor, though good, was not as structured as I would have liked. Once I found a place back at school that had more structure I actually felt that I was learning (or at least retaining) more. Come to find out - that second place trained very much like the military did as I learned later. Such things as primary instructors with "off-wing" flights along the syllabus to check on standardization and progress, plus a second (or third) set of eyeballs to offer a different opinion or technique.

Sorry my post doesn't add to the discuss about which flight school to chose in the Sacramento area, but maybe it will shed some light on different types of training packages.

USMCFLYR