Is it necessary to pre-learn VCE content before Years 11/12?

[excelsiorxlcr]

So do you think it would be beneficial to get a tutor to go over concepts in chem, for e.g., before I go into Year 11? Also, would you recommend the TSFX summer school lectures for this?

[dankfrank420]

Not really, VCE was designed to be covered in two years. If you want to extend yourself that's good for you, and congratulations you have more motivation than I'll ever have. But I don't really see a reason for it, as long as you put in the work in years 11/12 then you'll be fine.

Speaking anecdotally here, lots of kids at my school (being selec entry) try to learn the entire course on the holidays. This means that some of them slack off in class because they've already learnt it before.

Going ahead in the course before you start VCE is a double-edged sword.

Are you not doing a 1/2 in year 10?

[heids]

Yes, stretching yourself is great!

I believe that if you pre-learn now, you will get better scores.  It's inevitable that if you spend longer on certain content, you will know it better than someone who only spent a year.
... that's why people are doing it.

HOWEVER, I am very strongly anti-pre-learning.  I believe that a 2-year course was meant to take... you guessed it... 2 years.  Unfortunately, while it used to be an 'advantage' to do this, it's gradually becoming a must if you just want to keep up with everyone else and not be disadvantaged.

Like I'm not saying it's inherently wrong, it's just, here are some negatives.

a.  It focuses people more strongly on the final numbers, not the learning experience.  And you get caught up in how important that final score is – sure, it's important, but not as a number; it's important because it pushes you to learn, to work like you never knew you could, to push through those walls, to better yourself.
b.  It focuses on depth at the expense of breadth.  You miss out on so much broader general knowledge from year 10 – you get to feeling that it's not important, because it won't change your score, but in reality, it's important for your life.
In the time that you spend 'fine-tuning', getting a 50 instead of a 45, you could have learnt way way way more on other topics.  i.e. I think spending 3 years on one narrow subject is an inefficient way of getting the most out of your education, it leads to very deep knowledge of one small thing (where 'very deep' isn't even uni level anyway) and comparative ignorance of everything else.
c.  May get bored/over it by year 12, so you won't have the motivation or enjoyment.
d.  It takes your time away from social activites and building relationships with family/friends.
e. Expensive.  Tutoring ain't cheap.
f.  The fact is, you don't have an unlimited time to prepare in 'real life'.  You'll only have 1 year to learn 1 year's stuff in, you don't have the choice to spend 3 years on it.

Imagine this.

Imagine a school decided that their sole focus was getting the best possible VCE marks.  'Let's choose a bunch of content-focused VCE subjects (ones with fewer 'skills'), like HHD, PE or Psych, and teach it all through school, from year 7 up to year 12!  Then when they do these subjects in year 12, they'll all be getting 50s! 
What's that you say?  Kids need a bit of variety?  Year 8-level cooking, sewing, woodwork, art, sport, geography, history, chemistry?  What rubbish!!!  They don't contribute to the ATAR, we are not having them!!!'

OK, they would probably get better VCE marks (assuming that everyone hadn't dropped out by year 10) – but they would have missed the whole point of schooling.

It's ultimately up to you.  MOST people don't prepare this far in advance - I definitely didn't.  I suppose it boils down to what you really want out of VCE.  If it's just to get that number to get into that course, or to satisfy your family, then pre-prepare by all means; there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.  But if you want to enjoy your learning all along the way, and keep learning a wide variety of things, I suggest you focus on your CURRENT education and deal with year 12 stuff when you get to it.

tl;dr: it's not at all necessary to pre-prepare to get good marks, but it will probably improve your marks.  But remember, marks aren't everything - make sure it doesn't take away from other areas of your education, or your life/relationships.

[lpnly]

No, I think you probably rather fine tune your studying techniques to prepare for the demands and standards of year 11 and 12. I find that even though you do learn ahead, you often do forget - and sometimes its just better to know how to revise properly than learn ahead a whole junk of information that you may or may not even remember.
In year 11, the standards do rise and you'll find yourself needing to study more efficiently to meet these standards. So I suggest just trying to find studying techniques rather than trying to learn 2 years worth of content when you can be building the foundations in year 10. And are you doing a VCE subject in year 10? I highly recommend you do.
Remember its not how hard you work, its how smart you work. Best of luck 

[cameotodd]

Enjoy being a kid... that's my advice