However, do any of you have any hints or tips for making the workload more manageable?
Take what people say here with extreme caution. The person you should be asking this of is your instructor. For example I've had people on here tell me how I should be recruiting people at work, without even knowing what industry I work in! The only thing I'd offer is get that BUMFPICH (or whatever checklist you use) memorised, and make sure you can whizz through it (with precision, not rushed) quickly.