20 Days to CLAT – Preparation Strategy

The consortium of National Law University conducts its own admission entrance test which is the Common Law Admission Test for the undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The competition is high as the colleges involved in this consortium are the best Law colleges in India. Besides, there are many top colleges that give admissions on the basis of CLAT Scores.

To prepare for an exam it is necessary to know all the details of the examination. To understand the test, it is necessary to analyze the syllabus, the paper pattern of the exam, and the mode of the exam.

CLAT Paper Pattern

The mode of CLAT is Offline mode

The CLAT has 150 Multiple Choice Questions for 150 marks that must be attempted within 2 hours. The CLAT has sections on English Language, Current Affairs, including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Technique.

Negative marking: There will be a Negative Marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer.

CLAT Syllabus

English Language

In this section of the UG-CLAT, you will be provided passages of about 450 words each. These passages will be derived from contemporary or historically significant fiction and non-fiction writing and would be of a standard that a 12th-standard student may be able to read in about 5-7 minutes.

Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate your comprehension and language skills, including your abilities to:

1. Read and comprehend the main point discussed in the passage, as well as any arguments and viewpoints discussed or set out in the passage;
2. Draw inferences and conclusions based on the passage;
3. Summarise the passage;
4. Compare and contrast the different arguments or viewpoints set out in the passage; and
5. Understand the meaning of various words and phrases used in the passage.

Current Affairs Including General Knowledge

In this section, you will be provided passages of up to 450 words each. The passages will be derived from news, journalistic sources, and other non-fiction writing. The questions may include an examination of legal information or knowledge discussed in or related to the passage, but would not require any additional knowledge of the law beyond the passage.

Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate your awareness of various aspects of current affairs and general knowledge, including:

• Contemporary events of significance from India and the world;
• Arts and culture;
• International affairs; and
• Historical events of continuing significance.

Legal Reasoning

In this section, you will be expected to read passages of around 450 words each. The passages may relate to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters, public policy questions, or moral philosophical inquiries. You will not require any prior knowledge of the law. You will benefit from a general awareness of contemporary legal and moral issues to better apply general principles or propositions to the given fact scenarios.

Each passage would be followed by a series of questions that will require you to:

• Identify and infer the rules and principles set out in the passage;
• Apply such rules and principles to various fact situations; and
• Understand how changes to the rules or principles may alter their application to various fact situations.

Logical Reasoning

The Logical Reasoning section of the UG-CLAT will include a series of short passages of about 300 words each. Each passage will be followed by one or more questions that will require you to:

• Recognize an argument, its premises, and conclusions;
• Read and identify the arguments set out in the passage;
• Critically analyze patterns of reasoning, and assess how conclusions may depend on particular premises or evidence;
• Infer what follows from the passage and apply these inferences to new situations;
• Draw relationships and analogies, identify contradictions and equivalence and assess the effectiveness of arguments.

Quantitative Techniques

The Quantitative Techniques section of the UG-CLAT will include short sets of facts or propositions, graphs, or other textual, pictorial or diagrammatic representations of numerical information, followed by a series of questions. You will be required to derive information from such passages, graphs, or other representations, and apply mathematical operations on such information.

The questions will require you to:

• Derive, infer, and manipulate numerical information set out in such passages, graphs, or other representations; and
• Apply various 10th-standard mathematical operations on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration, and statistical estimation.

To prepare for any exam one must need to make a proper and realistic study plan and then execute the same properly.  Every person has their own way of preparation and one must prepare a plan which most suitable for him.

This test will assess the aspirant based on five subjects. Time is to be devoted to each subject or topic, consider the weightage of each topic, and distribute your time accordingly between them.

To get familiar with the pattern of the examination, plan an effective time management strategy.

Managing time during preparation as well as during the exam plays a very crucial role. Since the questions will be based on the 450 words passages questions in the English section, GK, Logical reasoning, and in the Legal section it is going to be time-consuming. It is essential to structure both preparation as well as attempts. It is advisable to plan accordingly.

While attempting the questions, do not ponder upon the questions which you do not understand, move on to the next question without wasting any time.

Once you feel you are able to get a good grasp of your syllabus, assess your evaluation by solving CLAT previous year’s question papers. This will help you estimate which topics have been sufficiently dealt with and which need more effort. Solving question papers will also help you understand the type of questions and the difficulty level of the questions that you can expect in CLAT. Spend more time on strengthening your weaker areas, along with polishing your strong areas. The practice is the key to strengthening the weaker areas.

Practice mock tests as much as you can. Mock tests and Model Papers are already provided on the official website of CLAT. It is advisable to solve questions as much as possible. Solving mock tests will make you feel like exam day that will help you to judge yourself how you will be to performing on your exam day. Practicing mock test will help you learn time management. How much time you need to devote to which section will help you build up confidence once you start performing well.

It is also advisable to develop the reading habits as the aspirants are expected to read the long passages, analyze the passages, and derive answers to the questions given in a limited time period.

Make a habit of reading the news and following up on current affairs daily.

Practice elementary mathematics. Regular practice will help you become familiar with many shortcuts that you can utilize on the exam day which will help you complete the section on time.

Following are the section-wise CLAT preparation strategy to be followed in the last two weeks which will help you to get a good score:

CLAT Preparation Strategy: Week 1

English

This section will test your proficiency in comprehension and grammar.

Since you are appearing for CLAT you must have developed a habit of reading English newspapers and magazines to build up your vocabulary. Keep reading regular newspapers and one current affairs magazine, which covers the contemporary events well. It will also help with the General Knowledge section. Try to learn a few new words every day to make your vocabulary strong. Keep writing them so that you can revise those words in the end.

Identify the words you are not familiar with and try to understand their meaning and practice their usage. Learn

Legal Maxim and their usages make a list of them. Maxim can be quite difficult to learn, develop your own method to remember them. Learn the art of breaking up a sentence to understand its meaning more clearly.

Besides, brush up on the basics of grammar to tackle sentence correction and error detection-based questions.

Solve as many reading comprehension questions as you can to develop your reading speed.

General Knowledge and Current Affairs

It is advisable for Candidates to read the newspaper daily and go through the annual highlights.

Also, go through all the new developments in legal fields as well as in general. Read the new amendments in-laws, new appointments made, and Famous judgments of the Supreme Court.

Quantitative Aptitude

It will include short sets of facts or propositions, graphs, or other textual, pictorial or diagrammatic representations of numerical information, followed by a series of questions. You will be required to derive information from such passages, graphs, or other representations, and apply mathematical operations on such information.

Since practice is the key here, so attempt as many test papers as you can.

Logical Reasoning

This section will test your ability to identify patterns, analyzing passages identify arguments. Most of these questions can be easily solved by reading the passages carefully. Therefore, practice previous year papers to get a hold of the subject.

Legal Aptitude

This section involves questions related to law subjects. This subject is new for the students that are why maybe a bit complicated. The students are familiar with all other sections as they have already worked upon those sections in school but this section may prove to determine the overall score of the candidate and may appear as a tie-breaker. In this also a passage of 450 words will be given and students will have to answer the questions based on the passage. It is important to read as many passages as possible and try to develop an understanding of the concepts.

CLAT Preparation Strategy: Week 2

If you have been consistent in your preparation for the test you don’t need to take the pressure. Stay calm and stay focused.

Make sure that you make time for revision as it will enable you to retain facts and keep your preparation up-to-date. The most important thing for last-minute preparation is to revise as much as can.

Relearn what you already know. Avoid making new strategies at the last moment. Avoid touching new topics or subject or anything which might confuse you at the last moment. Try to retain what you already have prepared.

Keep practicing by solving previous year’s papers and mock tests.

Further, it is also advisable to keep a track of all the important news events, even during the last week so that it helps them in solving questions for the Current Affairs section.

Stick to your plan and be consistent in your preparation.

Subscribe Endeavor Careers YouTube channel & don’t forget to ring the bell. All the best!

Author –  Kishan Pratap Singh Deora

Product Head – Law Courses, Endeavor Careers

(L.L.M – NUJS Kolkata, B.A. L.L.B RGNUL Patiala)

Here’s a faster and easier way to stay updated – Follow Endeavor on Telegram

Subscribe to our Youtube
Follow us on Instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter