CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) is one of the most prestigious exam for laws to get into best universities. CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) will help you to enter the top law universities across India for UG and PG laws. CLAT 2025 will tentatively be conducted in the first week of December 2024 as per the recent announcement by The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs).
Common Law Admission Test is an extremely competitive exam to enter law universities. You need to pay attention to all the notifications about Common Law Admission Test released by the Consortium of National Law Universities from time to time. CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) can be a real game changer with respect to your career
To crack Common Law Admission Test you need to have clear understanding about the exam. As CLAT 2025 is approaching, let us try to answer some basic questions about Common Law Admission Test which will help you to enter your desired law universities
The CLAT 2024 examination was held in OFFLINE mode. CLAT 2024 was conducted on 3rd December, 2023. You need to have a clear understanding of what Common Law Admission Test is and how it is conducted, Which subjects you need to study to score well in the paper.
CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) will open a lot of opportunities for you and you can be sure of a secured future if you score well.
What Is CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) EXAM?
CLAT is one of the most-competitive entrance exams for admissions to law courses including five-year integrated LLB and one-year LLM courses in law colleges of India.
CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) is a national-level entrance exam for prestigious law universities
CLAT exam is conducted at 22 National Law Universities (NLUs). CLAT Exam is administered by the Consortium of National Law Universities
CLAT 2024 was held in offline, pen and paper format. The participating National Law Universities will start their admission process soon.
The date for CLAT 2025 has not been released yet by The Consortium of National Law Universities but it can be expected that CLAT 2025 will be conducted in December 2024.
What Should I Study For CLAT (Common Law Admission Test)?
Go through this detailed syllabus of CLAT exam and make sure you are well versed with everything mentioned below to crack CLAT Exam
CLAT for UG Courses consists of five section: English Language, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Techniques.
English Language of CLAT:
The English language section of the exam generally covers Word Rearrangement, Sentence Rearrangement, Synonyms, Antonyms, Analogies, Spotting Errors, Spelling Errors, Sentence Improvement, Reading Comprehension, One Word Substitution, Cloze Test, Idioms & Phrases, Fill in the blanks. This will test aptitude in comprehension passages and grammar.
In the comprehension section, you will be questioned on your understanding of the passage and its central theme, meanings of words used in the passage. The grammar section will carry questions on rectification of incorrect sentences, filling in blanks with suitable words.
If you had started preparing for the exam after the board exams, you are not likely to have much time for vocabulary. Focus on what problems you face in the English section while taking mock tests. Identify your grey areas and improve them in the last three weeks. You can look at the high-frequency words (coaching institute provides such lists) if you do wish to increase word power. You can also read newspaper to improve your English.
Current Affairs and General Knowledge of CLAT:
Current Affairs and General Knowledge section covers Current Happenings around the world related to Science & Technology, Sports, Economics, History, Geography, Politics and some of the Static GK. The GK section will test your knowledge of current affairs.
This is one of the highly scoring sections. Be prepared for this section. Reading the newspapers regularly, keeping a tab on vital matters highlighted by the media in the last year would have been sufficient preparation to handle this section. If you have not been doing so, follow some last-minute tips to ramp up your score in this section.
Legal Reasoning of CLAT
Legal Reasoning section consists of Legal GK, Important Supreme Court Judgments; Laws, Important and recent acts and amendments of the legislature; Important topics from Contract law, Criminal law, tort law, and Constitutional law etc. For the legal aptitude section, take note that you will not be tested on any prior knowledge of law or legal concepts.
If a technical or legal term appears in the question, that term will be explained in the question itself. The questions will be designed to test your ‘legal aptitude’. If you are good at logical reasoning and aptitude, you will perform well here. Try getting your hands on the previous years’ question papers. Questions get repeated from this section quite often with little or no changes.
Logical Reasoning of CLAT
Logical Reasoning section majorly covers Ranking, Syllogism, Coding-Decoding, Time & Sequence, Blood Relations, Distance and Direction, Statement & Assumption, Series, Number Test, analogy, Alphabet Test, Classification.
The logical reasoning section of CLAT will assess your ability to identify patterns, logical links and rectify illogical arguments. The kind of questions asked will be from a wide array of logical reasoning questions like syllogisms, logical sequences, analogies. There are two types of questions in this section – logical, both verbal/critical and analytical. Analytical questions need tremendous practice before you can be comfortable.
The logical questions are not difficult to tackle if you have the basic logical sense. With a little bit of practice, it can be improved a lot.
Quantitative Techniques of CLAT
Quantitative Techniques of CLAT covers Areas, and Volumes, Percentage, Simplification & Approximation, Partnerships, Ratio, HCF & LCM, Discounts, Profit & Loss, Proportion, Interest, Averages etc.
This section will test candidates only on “elementary” mathematics. It is pertinent to understand the fundamentals of the various topics of standard X level. To enhance your speed, one needs to attempt more practice exercises from various material. Anyhow, there are a lot of us who have a fear of mathematics since like forever. It is important to know that Mathematics is just a small part of the entire paper, so a few questions can be skipped.
CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) Consortium
Until 2018, the CLAT Exam was administered by National Law Universities on a rotating basis. But, in 2019, a permanent body made up of institutions known as the Consortium of National law Universities is conducting CLAT. The Consortium (also known as the CLAT Consortium) is headquartered at NLSIU Bangalore
In 2023, the Convenor of CLAT was Professor (Dr) Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU Bangalore. Professor Dr Poonam Saxena (Vice-Chancellor) had been elected as the president of CLAT Consortium in 2023.
Tips to Crack CLAT (Common Law Admission Test)
Know the basics:
First and the most important learning to do for starting your preparation to get into your dream National Law Universities is to know the basics. Keep yourself well aware about the syllabus, exam pattern, sections and every information related to CLAT. By knowing this, you can plan your strategy and start preparing accordingly
Join an institute for classroom experience:
Please remember that the suggestion of enrolling oneself into a reputed and reliable institute is a choice. If you’re someone who believes that you can have better learning under professional guidance, don’t hesitate to sign up. A good coaching center doesn’t mean the pressure will be gone, but it helps you balance the pressure thereby leading to a calmer and strategized learning.
Practice and Practice:
The preparation actually escalates with practice. The simplicity of logic here is, the more you practice the more it contributes to your learning. Time your test practices, this way you will be able to analyze your time-run as well. When it comes to practicing the mathematics section, keep a strong focus on accuracy. The key tip is to always use short-cuts whenever possible.
Stay updated with current affairs and General knowledge:
This is probably the most advised for exams involving competition, that is, ‘Be updated with current affairs’. Because CLAT has a section of general knowledge and current affairs, you want to make sure you cover these two areas. General Knowledge is an ocean of information which is almost impossible to know every fact by heart. The trick here is to tackles the General Knowledge topics which are most likely to come. And, this can be done by going through the previous years’ question paper and get an idea on the areas focused for the GK questions.
CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) Eligibility Criteria
1. The candidate should have passed their 10+2 or equivalent examination from a recognized board with a minimum of 45% marks (40% for SC/ST candidates).
2. Candidates appearing in the qualifying examination in the same year are also eligible to apply for CLAT, but they must provide proof of passing the examination at the time of admission.
3. There is no upper age limit for appearing in the CLAT exam.
4. Candidates must be Indian nationals or NRIs/NRI-sponsored candidates.
5. Candidates with a history of criminal convictions, academic misconduct, or disciplinary action are not eligible for admission to any law school through CLAT.
6. The qualifying examination refers to the examination that a candidate must pass to be eligible for admission to an undergraduate program. This could be the 10+2 examination or an equivalent examination or any other examination that is recognized by the candidate’s board as equivalent to the 10+2 examination.
Get Inspired by CLAT 2024 Topper