At Galileo, we are analyzing some approaches in order to improve Assessment performance and decrease the amount of deadlocks at peak times.
After error log analysis and some stress tests (which do not really simulate multiple users due to the lack of this feature in tclwebtest) our approach to follow is to remove the item data versioning (i.e. not to use the CR for item data) and to offer either a "Light Assessment" option to the user or parameter to the administrator.
We will keep on posting our results in order to help others with similar issues.
