You said it yourself the tricks they pull? this is careers on the line it's a FAA Checkride there should be no tricks! There should not be maneuvers that you never trained for that you're given on a Checkride that are not required FAA maneuvers. There should be no talking during the FAA observation it's not an oral they should sit and shake your hand at the end and tell you good job.
All I'm saying is the fail rate was ridiculously high for the caliber of pilots that they were testing most of us had 6+ years experience and had seen many Checkride's and type ratings.
I'm just pointing this out because of this thread I'm not here to bash anyone but it has happened and it could happen again when people don't want somebody moving on to their seniority list.