Huh, interesting. I know the whole SDI motto is "teach you the basics and you be responsible and practice it further." Reminds me of college sometimes.
Maybe the extra dive would have been useful... My SDI cert instructor spent the entire pool session focused on emergency skills, and didn't spend even a moment explaining equalizing or other soft skills like "hand signals" or "fin kicking techniques." He told us "try to focus on neutral buoyancy" and the group I was in immediately reached for their remotes with 0 hesitation (and the whole "lung thing" didn't get explained until we were on the boat). I picked up these skills two dives after certifying, thankfully (apparently I can no-hands equalize somehow 0_0). It took me goofing the buoyancy royally to realize where I was going wrong. Heh, my buddy made the same exact mistake during the second dive, while I chilled and watched him start to ascend 10 feet.
Also it's pretty cool to speak with a marine scientist. Must be a fun line of work