Is getting a headstart in a subject bad?

[undefined]

Hey guys,

I've recently been completing one of my textbooks to get a headstart as I'm quite weak in it. I've done roughly ~40 pages and plan on finishing a couple more before school starts. My question is; should I stop working through the textbook as I won't be able to do any of the work at the pace of the class (because it's already been completed)? What should I do while my peers are doing the chapters that I have already finished? Revise? Continue to accelerate further?

TL:DR; should I stop working through the textbook before the school year has even begun?

Thank you.

[Alter]

I'm not sure why you believe getting ahead on a subject would be bad; of course it's not! Even if you're just doing chill readings and going through areas that interest you, you'll still be exposing yourself to what lies ahead. This will make the learning easier the second time around, because you already have some foundations to work off. The only way it could be bad is if you were teaching yourself the wrong things, which is pretty difficult to do.

What subject is this for? You never specified.

[Aaron]

I agree - it's never a bad thing to start early. Your teachers will actually appreciate that you're putting time and effort into x subject

What should I do while my peers are doing the chapters that I have already finished? Revise? Continue to accelerate further?

Practice exam questions in relation to the topic currently being studied (just one idea)... many more things you could be doing as well. You can never do too many questions. Especially if it's a subject where errors are common, such as Further.

[keltingmeith]

I'm going to be devil's advocate and say it's very rarely bad - but not necessarily good. This is just because if you do too much reading ahead, you could burn yourself out a bit, and any bonuses from being ahead can easily be counter-acted right then and there, defeating the purpose of actually reading ahead.

If you feel like you could comfortably do more, go ahead - but if you're struggling a bit, getting a little tired, it might be wise to slow down and try and rest up before school starts up.

[undefined]

Thank you everyone for the responses!

The subject I'm talking about is Japanese, and I've just been doing the first couple chapters which don't really introduce much and are more like revision from last year. I've left out the things that I am unsure of, however I usually just read the question again and find out I've misread it before. For the questions that I'm still unsure of, I'll check with my tutor this week. For class I guess I'll just check my answers and read further.

[spectroscopy]

a very common question you ask.
in general i would say that you dont gain that much from reading ahead in vce and i personally found it slightly demotivated me in the earlier weeks of the year when i had already covered some of the stuff over the holidays and felt like i knew it and didnt study as much for the first sac which was a big error.

however, if this is for japanese, i would recommend reading ahead definitely. with languages any improved vocab/grammar/understanding help will be able to carry through throughout the year and it will definitely give you a leg up during the year. keep going as you see fit however dont feel stressed or even that you need to do it. it will help but is not a pre-requisite for success.

good luck

[JordanM-VCE]

I did the same thing as you in IT Apps (back when that was a thing) and noticed that giving yourself that head start while also going to your teacher with questions can be very beneficial. Sure, there will still be concepts and ideas that you don't fully understand, but that's what you clarify with your teacher to build a useful base of knowledge. If you're passionate about the subject then I see no reason why you shouldn't.