Jon Kraus wrote:

Took my IFR checkride today and busted... I screwed up the holding
pattern big time and that was that..

What doesn't kill you will only serve to make you stronger.

Sorry about the bust, but good job pulling yourself out of the "feel
sorry for myself slump" into which you almost slid.

BTW, to answer your hold question: FWIW, after flying about 350 hours
IFR (most of those hours were not IMC, mind you) in a spam can in the
busy Northeast US, I have yet to have a hold assigned. Perhaps it was
the fact that I flew most of those hours in a C172 where ground speed
was often measured with two digits, not three. ;-)

--
Peter