To investigate the effect of volume fraction of coarse aggregate(VFCA) on the developments of elastic modulus and prismatic compressive strength of early-age concrete, mixtures with different VFCA were designed for concretes with water to cementitious material ratio (w/b) of 0.2,0.43 and 0.3 respectively. Keeping the mortar composition and w/b unchanged, and merely increasing the VFCA gradually from zero, the elastic modulus of concrete at the age of 28 days increased significantly, whereas the compressive strength of prismatic specimen first slightly decreased when VFCA is small, and subsequently increased gently when VFCA became larger. External drying induced evaporable water loss in concrete decreased the degree of cement hydration, which resulted in a reduction on elastic modulus, and a reduction on compressive strength as well in the dried specimens compared to that of sealed ones with the same curing age. The larger the w/b was, the bigger reduction the elastic modulus exhibited. Degree of cement hydration-based predictions of concrete elastic modulus and compressive strength were proposed, and good agreements were found between the test and the analytical results regardless of w/b, VFCA and curing conditions.