How To Prepare For CLAT

The Common Law Admission Test popularly known as the CLAT exam gives us the opportunity to take up seats in 22 National Law universities (NLUs) across India. The competition is not very easy as over 70,000 brilliant minds compete to chase 2,175 seats every year. But It is not impossible! With a proper strategy in hand, focused and determined spirit we can also crack up the exam.

The very first step into the preparation is to know your exam well. The number of questions, areas from which they are asked, topic categorisation, time you have in hand. Talking about the CLAT exam pattern from 2020 is going to change. The number of questions have reduced from 200 to 150 but the time remains the same. But is this actually a good news? For people who read a lot, yes!, definitely it's good news but for non-readers it's time to buckle up!! The paper is 70% reading oriented and 30% other skills will be required.

 Let's first see the section bifurcation and then we see how reading is an important aspect.

With each section analysis, you will notice how Reading is the key for time and speed with that we will also see what you require to do in each section 

Legal Reasoning : There will be 6 to 8 passages of 450 words each. The section tests your reading and comprehending skills and definitely your legal presence of mind. The more you are able to read and comprehend the better hand you will have. 

To prepare for this section It is really important to take daily notes of the legal aspects in our country. 

CONSTITUTION: Secularism, Citizenship,Double Jeopardy, History of constitution

OTHER TOPICS: Negligence, Doping in sports, Laws for Startups, Insider Trading, Drone regulations, Privacy Laws, Property ownership (article from Livemint), Animal Protection, Political Participation of government employees (from The Wire), Digital Surveillance- Bloomberg Quint, Section 144 (CrPC), Fakenews (from Medianama.com), Agriculture ( from The Economist), Act of God ( BarbandBench.com) & Russian governance from (The Guardian)

For Critical Reasoning:

There will be short passages known as arguments on the bases of which you will have questions of assumption,inference, strengthening and weakening, evaluation. These questions are adapted from GMAT and GRE format. So it is recommended to be practised from these exam sources. For these types of questions knowing the concept of answering is extremely important. They check your comprehending skills and judgement. These topics cannot be left till last moment hence regular practise of 10 questions daily is advisable.

Quantitative Ability: Here the examiner checks your data interpretation skills. Data will be provided in format of graphs and on the basis of your comprehension you have to attempt the questions. Each graph will carry 3-4 questions. Important Topics to be covered are PERCENTAGES, RATIO PROPORTION, PROFIT & LOSS and AVERAGES. 

For English: Reading and attempting passages is extremely important. By the exam it is recommended to have the ability to read 300 words per minute. Vocabulary is also an important aspect and hence one should mark and learn words from everyday reading, you can also take up books like word power made easy to learn vocabulary in a structured format.

For General Knowledge: Questions revolve around current affairs and static gk. As per the new trend it is expected to have a full article clipping on the bases of which you will have 4-5 questions, 2-3 relating to current affairs and 1-2 related to static gk i.e. relating the topic to the past.

A student will require at least six months to prepare for CLAT. one can get enrolled in a coaching center or self prepare with online resources.

What one should definitely invest in is a mock test series. With 3-4 months into preparation one should start appearing for mock tests and sectional tests. An early start even if your syllabus is not complete allows you to check if you are going wrong in the topics you have already done. There is a possibility that you are not doing things right and need a mentor. 

In the latter months one should create a test taking environment and cautiously attempt the paper. All of this will help you with knowing what questions to attempt and which ones to leave as the paper attracts negative marks for every wrong answer. Calcutative guesses are risky and should be avoided.

Regular Schedule and timetable is important from the very first day of your preparation. 

Lastly, Reading newspapers and other articles relating to the field is a must. If you don't read the newspaper daily then it won't be good to fetch desired results in the long run. Remember that those who are “Readers are Leaders!!”

This is your fight and it completely depends how madly you need the college and degree of your choice. All the Best!

Author: Shirin Tarachandani

Also Read :

• CLAT UG 2020 Question Paper Format | CLAT New Question Paper Format

• HOW TO ACE CLAT 2020? SECTION WISE PREPARATION TIPS