HOW TO CRACK CLAT?

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralised test for admission to 21 National Law Universities in India. 43 other education institutes and two public sector institutes are also eligible to use these scores. The test is conducted every year by one of the 21 participating law schools in rotation, in the order of their establishment, starting with National Law School of India University which conducted CLAT-2008, and up to National University of Advanced Legal Studies which conducted CLAT-2018. The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade for admission to integrated undergraduation programmes in Law and after Graduation in Law for Master of Laws (LL.M) programmes conducted by these law universities.

To be eligible for CLAT, the candidates must have secured:

(a) Forty-five percent (45%) marks in Qualifying Exam (Class XII or equivalent) in case of candidates belonging to Unreserved /OBC /Specially Abled Persons (SAP) and other categories.

(b) Forty Percent (40%) marks in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST categories. Candidates who are appearing in the qualifying examination in March/April 2019 are also eligible for appearing in CLAT-2019 offline examination. However, they shall be required to produce evidence of their passing the qualifying examination at the time of admission, failing which they shall lose their right to be considered for admission.

There is no age limit for CLAT

CLAT 2019 is expected to be conducted by NLU Odisha, Cuttack on May 12, 2019.

EXAMINATION PATTERN

Before you start your preparation it is important to understand the pattern of the examination. The exam will be conducted in offline mode where the paper will have 200 questions from five different subjects including English (Comprehension), General Knowledge & Current Affairs, Elementary Mathematics (Numerical Ability), Legal Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. Following is the distribution of the questions of each of the five sections.

Therefore the exam consists of a total of 200 questions, which are to be attempted in 120 minutes. So, the aspirant has less than a minute per question!!!!! Each question carries 1 mark and for every incorrect attempt, 0.25 marks will be deducted.

Scope and coverage of questions under different subject areas:

English including comprehension: The English section will test the candidates’ proficiency in English based on comprehension passages and grammar. In the comprehension section, candidates will be questioned on their understanding of the passage and its central theme, meanings of words used therein, etc. The grammar section requires correction of incorrect grammatical sentences, filling of blanks in sentences with appropriate words, etc.

General Knowledge and Current Affairs: The General knowledge will be tested on the general awareness including static general knowledge. Questions on current affairs will test candidates on their knowledge of national and international current affairs.

Mathematics: This section will test candidate’s knowledge on elementary mathematics, i.e., maths taught up to 10th Class/standard.

Legal Aptitude: This section will test candidate’s interest towards study of law, research aptitude and problem solving ability. Questions may include legal propositions (described in the paper), and a set of facts to which the said proposition has to be applied. Some propositions may not be “true” in the real sense, candidates will have to assume the “truth” of these propositions and answer the questions accordingly.

Logical Reasoning: The purpose of the logical reasoning section is to test the candidate’s ability to identify patterns, logical links and rectify illogical arguments. It may include a variety of logical reasoning questions such as syllogisms, logical sequences, analogies, etc. However, visual reasoning will not be tested.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: HOW TO PREPAPRE?

Let us now examine how to prepare for these sections.

English:

This section consists of questions based on vocabulary, comprehension etc. Vocabulary can’t be enhanced overnight and hence requires a consistent effort. While you are trying to enhance your vocabulary, it is also important to understand the usage of the new words that you have learnt. The dictionary is a good source learning new words, but reading it becomes a rather monotonous task. Therefore reading newspapers, magazines and novels helps you learn new words in an interesting way. Further, reading a lot will help you increase your speed of reading, which is useful while solving the comprehension type questions. You can also Work on vocabulary by learning Synonyms and Antonyms, this way it might help learning quickly as you work upon few words, but you add double to your vocabulary. Just like vocabulary learning grammar is a continuous process and requires consistent effort. Also, remember that, good command on language and good vocabulary are the strengths of a good lawyer.

General Knowledge and Current Affairs:

Just like English, General Knowledge cannot be tamed overnight. A grasp over static portions such as History, Polity, Economics, Geography and Science will help you solve a sizeable chunk of the section. The best source to study current affairs is the newspaper. But remember that you need to revise what you study. Making notes from the newspaper is a tedious task and also consumes a lot of time. Here the monthly current affairs magazines come in handy. Such magazines are published by various institutes such as the AA Shah’s IAS Institute (www.aashah.com).  For static portion one can refer to books such as ones by Pearson’s publications or Lucent. Further learning G.K & current affairs becomes fun, if you solve questions based on the portions that you have studied.

Mathematics:

Mathematics, which involves basic mathematics from 10^th standard, forms a very small portion of the paper, but skipping this would be a mistake!!! 20 easy questions are a sure shot way of pocketing those marks. ‘Quantitative Aptitude- R.S. Sharma’ will help you through the exam. Practice is the key to score well in this section.

Legal Aptitude:

There are a few topics specific to legal aptitude which everyone should go through during these months to acquire a decent grip on the section. These are the following sections where law aspirants need to concentrate-

• General theory of Law of Torts
• Contracts and Criminal Law
• Constitution and Polity
• Criminal law

Candidates should go into the depth of constitution and polity, since it forms a significant part of legal knowledge. The first three topics, that is, Law of Torts, Contracts and Criminal Law are a part of legal reasoning.

Legal Reasoning section takes care of principle which must be applied on facts. This section tests the candidate’s interest towards the study of law, research aptitude and problem-solving ability. Legal maxims are also an important topic in this section. To study some of the important legal maxims you can watch our video on-

Logical Reasoning:

The most popular topics asked in the Logical Reasoning section of CLAT Exam are:

• Puzzles
• Seating Arrangement
• Logical Sequences
• Number Test
• Verbal Reasoning
• Family/ Blood Relation
• Ranking & Order
• Coding Decoding
• Syllogisms
• Statement Conclusion/ Assumption
• Pairing
• Data Interpretation
• Inference based question
• Calendar
• Directions
• Para-jumbles

The list is not exhaustive. Like mathematics, the saying, ‘Practice makes a man perfect’ holds true for this section as well.

POINTERS TO BE KEPT IN MIND BY ALL ASPIRANTS-

• If you are short of time for preparation (considering that now we have almost three weeks to go for the exam!!!), focus more on mathematics, logical reasoning and legal aptitude. These sections can be prepared in lesser duration of time and one can score well with some practice. Don’t focus too much on basics, develop on the concepts that you already know. For the aspirants who have not been reading the newspapers on a daily basis, monthly current affairs magazines are the Holy Grail as they provide relevant information in a concise and crisp manner.
• Solve a good number of test papers. Before you go for the final exam, it is important that you solve a good number of mock tests to understand your strengths and weaknesses. It will also give you an Idea about where you stand with respect to the preparation and help you avoid silly mistakes during the exam.
• Focus on speed and accuracy. Dearth of time and negative marking increase the difficulty level of the exam. Practice will help you increase your speed. Master short tricks and direct formulae foe maths to save time. To increase your accuracy try to solve questions using elimination, i.e., try to understand why the other options are incorrect.
• Nothing beats hard work and patience. Consistent hard work is the key to success. Study hard and work towards your ultimate goal. Revise the syllabus well before you go for the exam.
• Finish the syllabus well in time before the exam.

ALL THE BEST!!!!

DO WELL!!!!

Note:

To help you prepare for CLAT-2019 “A A Shah’s Young Lawyer” program brings to you live video sessions with experienced faculties, free of cost and at convince of your own home. These live video sessions are broadcasted through our YouTube Channel. Subscribe our channel using the link given below for quality content to help you crack the CLAT Exam-2019.