After buying your books for the semester, go to the library and make copies of all the old exams for every class that you have. Study the old exams and practice writing out answers to the questions. Some teachers will even look over the answers that you have prepared. The importance of old exams cannot be overstressed. Old exams provide a blueprint for the semester, and give you an indication of to expect on the final.
Some students rely only on old exams, and do very well.
The next step is to begin your outline. Early preparation will allow you the necessary time at the end of the semester to study instead of working on an outline. Another word about outlines, don't recreate the wheel. I recommend buying a good commercial outline for each class, then tailoring the outline to your course notes and the material contained within the past exams. This should yield a highly useful, accurate, and compact outline.