Y'know, I figured that if I did the work in class time, I didn't have to do so much at other times.  Let's face it, you're forced to sit through class - why not work hard then, so you can laze round at home?  You can actually do a lot of your own work/self-learning during class time by ignoring the stuff the teacher's waffling on about (bring in a laptop and 'take notes'  )  Why waste the opportunity?
)  Why waste the opportunity?
Whilst this is good in theory, some of my best VCE memories were the banter and good times I had in class. 
eg. using dilute HCl in pipettes and firing them like guns at each other to recreate real-life counter-strike, or burning coils of magnesium for fun, or turning the gas port into a flamethrower, or discussing with our methods teacher how to best destroy the music faculty, or racing to complete The Age sudoku, or playing actual counter-strike (version 1.6 for those keen) in English, playing table cricket, or just bagging each other for no particular reason, etc etc.
I can't do that stuff at home by myself with all my friends living in all corners of Melb^^. I can't remember doing much work in any of my VCE classes (exception of spesh, perhaps), and I can't remember others in my class getting much done either (and these are classes that had people getting elite ATARs), and I wouldn't have played my VCE in any other way in that respect.