People seem to think that studying hard is the only way to go about VCE. Well, it's certainly one way of doing it, if you don't mind lots and lots of stress
Personally, I'm probably not too much help because my circumstances were unusual. In my year 8 summer holidays, I felt bored, so I bought a Methods 1/2 book and started working through that. I was quite surprised when I found everything relatively manageable. As a result, I was able to finish 1/2 by the middle of the year and 3/4 by the end of the year. That was Methods out of the way.
Then, as you can guess, I started spesh. However, having already dabbled a bit in maths in primary school, I chose to skip 1/2 and go straight to 3/4. I was able to finish most of spesh in year 10 by myself, but I needed a bit of reminding of what I was doing in the mechanics section by a physics teacher as this was before I had done any physics. Near the end of year ten, I finished spesh as well. That was two VCE subjects already down for me.
You can thus see why year 11 probably wasn't as stressful for me as it should have been. With Methods and Spesh out of the way, I only had four subjects in year 11: Chinese, Physics, Chemistry and English Language. My science classes were very enjoyable; we both covered the year 11 curriculum and also looked at some interesting advanced material taken from first year university courses. Somehow, by doing all of the assignments every week plus reading ahead, I was comfortably able to get my head around physics and chemistry. For English Language, I tried my best for EVERY SINGLE essay I got and kept repeating to myself the importance of doing well in it, while in Chinese, I wrote countless essays throughout the year, used my time on the way to school and from school as well as any spare time at school I got running through my oral exam material in my mind, and did a lot of trial exams. As you can see, I ended up devoting more attention to English Language and Chinese than I did to my remaining four subjects. But hey, it worked in the end; I got subject awards for all of my 1/2s, a 50 in Methods, a 45 in Chinese and dux of year 11. To put this in context, the only award I had ever received at school before was a physics award in year 10.
Thus brings us to year 12, which was this year. What a fun year. I had five subjects: English Language, Physics, Chemistry, Specialist Maths and UMEP physics. My year 10 physics teacher had asked me to learn essentially half the first year university course by myself, and coming off last year, I had a pretty solid 3/4 and UMEP physics foundation. Add to that the fact that I went to the ASI Chemistry Summer School plus my reading in the holidays, and I knew most of the 3/4 chemistry course before the year began. By seeing everything in the course before class, I made it so much easier for myself to learn the material in class. Thus, chemistry, physics and UMEP physics weren't as much of a hassle. Specialist Maths, I had already completed that in year ten, so I devoted almost no extra time to that subject.
I thus spent nearly ALL of my time on English Language, writing essays, rewriting essays, doing extra analyses, asking the teacher questions...in SWOTVAC, I sent my teacher 4 essays in one day at one stage, and I would often spend Sundays writing two essays. My teacher must have become quite sick of me. I would do essays, scheduled to be handed in after a week, in two days, and I'd get extra essay topics. In the end, I probably amassed around 70 essays and analyses at least. I also did around ten English Language trial exams and had each one marked. Even on the week before the exam, I handed in more work to my teacher, and by then, it was pleasing to note the regularity of the 14/15 scores that I was receiving. And how did I manage to get myself to do all of this work? I scared myself into doing it. I kept picturing a scene where I got 50s for everything but a 30 in English Language, which would majorly affect my ATAR. That was enough to "motivate" me to keep working even when things became very stressful and the times weren't good. I got a 55/75 for my first English Language trial exam and that almost completely shattered any drive I had to keep working, but once again, fear kicked in.
As for the other trial exams, I did a LOT of chemistry exams, did fewer physics exams and did spesh exams whenever I felt bored (not kidding). I only did uni physics exams after VCE exams, but I was probably lucky to get away with that.
As my study scores suggest, my way of prioritising English over my other subjects seemed to be quite helpful. However, it must be noted that the success of my study habits came mostly from earlier work I did and my school's year 11 science program. What can be taken from me is the importance of your English subject; that should come first, regardless.
Also, to a certain degree, fear of failure can be a powerful motivating device. You should probably regulate it so that it doesn't overstress and kill you, but it is a useful thing to have. Without it, there would be no way I'd possibly get a 50 in English Language. Even now, my scores surprise me.