That's not true now. We didn't do simulators at all (I wish we had; the first day I had an on the road lesson I couldn't believe that I was actually supposed to just get into a car and start driving on main roads where the instructor only had a brake), but we started with a quiet residential area the first day and then moved on to normal roads, on the third or fourth day was the highway, and we did stuff like one ways and roundabouts too. The driving test involves highway, railroad crossings, etc. and you have to both reverse into a parking spot and parallel park.

Which doesn't seem as stringent as Norway but is still better than what you describe.