In law school you must master IRAC, take as many Bar classes as possible, and use specialized prep materials
First, master the IRAC format. This is difficult because you will need personal feedback from someone on whether your writing matches the legal writing style. Ideally you will get it from your legal writing class, which most law schools require for their first year students. If that does not work for you, seek outside help in your first semester. There are often volunteer tutors available, of varying quality. If you are reluctant to pay a tutor, remember this -- if you fail the Bar, the economic value of your 100,000 dollar education is diminished significantly. In that light, a thousand dollars paid to a tutor is 1 percent of the total cost.
Second, take as many Bar classes as possible. Every state has mandatory subjects that show up on the Bar every year. I took as many of these as I could stand. I knew I was weak on contracts, so I took classes that covered the UCC, Secured Transactions, International Business Transactions and Real Estate Secured Transactions.
Take all those classes. It is supremely boring but you will be glad later that you had some exposure to the material before the cram period. Professors will often skip the material you need for the bar exam. However, even some exposure is better than none. Bar Exam classes are tedious and no fun. You are not attending law school to have fun. You are there to graduate and pass the Bar Exam.
Third, use specialized prep materials. A lot of professors will say you do not need these. They are wrong, unless you are one of those people who has the legal instinct at the outset. Most law professors have that instinct-- that is why they are law professors.
There's a lot more where that came from in Tim's post, where he provides a primer on passing the California bar exam, with a lot of solid, detail-oriented advice. I recommend reading it even if you aren't trying to pass the bar, just as an example of the kind of planning you may unconsciously shy away from -- but which would benefit you.