At first it does seem like a lot to handle, particularly when in real IMC, rather than just under the hood, bumping around, trying to persuade someone to give a radar service north east of London and dealing with the more involved RT on the intial stages of approaches. I found that it got quite a bit easier as the course progressed. By the time the course was over and it came to the flight test I was more confident than I was when I took my PPL test.
I found using a PC-based simulator was helpful. Obviously the handling aspects are of no value and personally I didn't find the instrument scan to be useful either, but using navaids with a good wind blowing was very instructive. I also found the RANT software very useful.