diff --git a/doc/development/setup.rst b/doc/development/setup.rst
index 50a7aa5b5..8aec19715 100644
--- a/doc/development/setup.rst
+++ b/doc/development/setup.rst
@@ -83,15 +83,14 @@ Code checks and unit tests
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 Before you check in your code into git, always run the static checkers and unit tests::
 
-    flake8 .
+    flake8 --ignore=E123,E128,F403,F401,N802,W503 .
     isort -c -rc .
     python manage.py check
     py.test
 
-The ``flake8`` command by default is a bit stricter than what we really enforce, but we do enforce that all commits
-produce no output from::
-
-    flake8 --ignore=E123,E128,F403,F401,N802,W503 .
+If you have multiple CPU cores and want to speed up the test suite, you can install the python
+package ``pytest-xdist`` using ``pip install pytest-xdist`` and then run ``py.test -n NUM`` with
+``NUM`` being the number of threads you want to use.
 
 It is therefore a good idea to put this command into your git hook ``.git/hooks/pre-commit``,
 for example::
diff --git a/src/tests/base/test_locking.py b/src/tests/base/test_locking.py
index 8d097113b..e4e2d3580 100644
--- a/src/tests/base/test_locking.py
+++ b/src/tests/base/test_locking.py
@@ -39,12 +39,12 @@ def test_locking_different_events(event):
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 def test_lock_timeout_steal(event):
-    locking.LOCK_TIMEOUT = 5
+    locking.LOCK_TIMEOUT = 1
     locking.lock_event(event)
     with pytest.raises(EventLock.LockTimeoutException):
         ev = Event.objects.get(id=event.id)
         locking.lock_event(ev)
-    time.sleep(6)
+    time.sleep(1.5)
     locking.lock_event(ev)
     with pytest.raises(EventLock.LockReleaseException):
         locking.release_event(event)
diff --git a/src/tests/control/test_permissions.py b/src/tests/control/test_permissions.py
index 639e8f4a9..e07d0c276 100644
--- a/src/tests/control/test_permissions.py
+++ b/src/tests/control/test_permissions.py
@@ -76,6 +76,12 @@ organizer_urls = [
 ]
 
 
+@pytest.fixture
+def perf_patch(monkeypatch):
+    # Patch out template rendering for performance improvements
+    monkeypatch.setattr("django.template.backends.django.Template.render", lambda *args, **kwargs: "mocked template")
+
+
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("url", [
     "",
@@ -94,7 +100,7 @@ def test_logged_out(client, env, url):
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("url", event_urls)
-def test_wrong_event(client, env, url):
+def test_wrong_event(perf_patch, client, env, url):
     client.login(email='dummy@dummy.dummy', password='dummy')
     response = client.get('/control/event/dummy/dummy/' + url)
     # These permission violations do not yield a 403 error, but
@@ -150,7 +156,7 @@ event_permission_urls = [
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("perm,url,code", event_permission_urls)
-def test_wrong_event_permission(client, env, perm, url, code):
+def test_wrong_event_permission(perf_patch, client, env, perm, url, code):
     ep = EventPermission(
         event=env[0], user=env[1],
     )
@@ -179,7 +185,7 @@ def test_current_permission(client, env):
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("perm,url,code", event_permission_urls)
-def test_correct_event_permission(client, env, perm, url, code):
+def test_correct_event_permission(perf_patch, client, env, perm, url, code):
     ep = EventPermission(
         event=env[0], user=env[1],
     )
@@ -192,7 +198,7 @@ def test_correct_event_permission(client, env, perm, url, code):
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("url", organizer_urls)
-def test_wrong_organizer(client, env, url):
+def test_wrong_organizer(perf_patch, client, env, url):
     client.login(email='dummy@dummy.dummy', password='dummy')
     response = client.get('/control/' + url)
     # These permission violations do not yield a 403 error, but
@@ -207,7 +213,7 @@ organizer_permission_urls = [
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("perm,url,code", organizer_permission_urls)
-def test_wrong_organizer_permission(client, env, perm, url, code):
+def test_wrong_organizer_permission(perf_patch, client, env, perm, url, code):
     if perm:
         op = OrganizerPermission(
             organizer=env[2], user=env[1],
@@ -221,7 +227,7 @@ def test_wrong_organizer_permission(client, env, perm, url, code):
 
 @pytest.mark.django_db
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("perm,url,code", organizer_permission_urls)
-def test_correct_organizer_permission(client, env, perm, url, code):
+def test_correct_organizer_permission(perf_patch, client, env, perm, url, code):
     op = OrganizerPermission(
         organizer=env[2], user=env[1],
     )
diff --git a/src/tests/settings.py b/src/tests/settings.py
index 1132d7782..9caa722d9 100644
--- a/src/tests/settings.py
+++ b/src/tests/settings.py
@@ -13,3 +13,5 @@ MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(TEST_DIR, 'media')
 EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.outbox'
 
 COMPRESS_ENABLED = COMPRESS_OFFLINE = False
+
+PASSWORD_HASHERS = ['django.contrib.auth.hashers.MD5PasswordHasher']