Lazy 8s do suck, but they're really not hard. Neither are the landings. You want to know what really sucks? The day after my ride, the FBO I was at sold the 172RG that I used to fail the checkride, so I had to retake in an Arrow...

Funny story about the lazy 8s. I actually took the checkride with an examiner and some guy from the FSDO who was examining my examiner (no pressure). When we got done, the FSDO guy told me that my instructor failed to explain why we learn each maneuver, which led to me not learning them correctly. We went over reasons for chandelles, stalls, steep turns, etc., and I asked what the purpose of the lazy eight was...neither of them could answer that! They really stumbled around for a while and finally said that it is designed to teach fine control of the aircraft, but man they really wanted to change the subject.

I actually agree that it is designed to teach better control, but it was funny to watch them struggle.