No, not true.
Remember, there are two different definitions of "pilot in command" time.
- The FAA Part 61 definition says that when you are the "sole manipulator of the flight controls" in an aircraft for which you are rated, you can log PIC -- regardless of if you are with an instructor or not.
- The "airline" definition says that you're the PIC only when you signed for the aircraft.
So, JT was asking specifically about what the FAA considers, not what the airlines consider. By the FAA definition, once you pass your first checkride and can "area solo", that's when you are officially checked out in that aircraft (that's according to the Memphis FSDO back in 1999 when I asked them specifically about this situation). If you have a license for the same category/class of airplane (e.g. FAA ASEL), then you can log every minute that you are the sole manipulator of the controls as PIC.
Here's a good article, but a little dated, that gives more information on how the military, the FAA, and the airlines differ in what they consider PIC time:
https://www.jet-jobs.com/articles/loggingpic.html
Also note that one of the mods has appended this article to a previous thread that has good discussion, too.