No, you don't do Fig 8's.
You sail up wind for (say) 10 mins tacking every 20 seconds (or what ever is sensible so you can go from Fully powered(FP) up to FP) and then stop and discus it and agree any changes required (or earlier if things are going wrong). Then either continue up wind with refined technique or sail back down hill going form FP to FP and then discuss again and refine / continue.
A classic one is to swap helm for crew as well, it gives both people an idea of the problems the other has when Tacking or gybing etc.
GPS tracking / watching can also be very usefull too, as can