CLAT PREPARATION
Strategy for Undergraduate law programme-
CLAT stands for Common Law Admission Test and with its help;
one can get into NLU’s for quality education in the field of law. This exam
basically consists of 5 sections, i.e. General studies, English, Reasoning, Maths,
Legal aptitude. Regarding this I would like to share some tricks and strategies
to crack CLAT.
Since CLAT is still evolving and its difficulty level is
increasing year after year, so consistency can be said to be the building block
of your dream to get through it. Also, proper time management is another
salient feature which every aspirant must possess.
CLATexam generally held on in the month of May (CLAT-2017 on
12th May, CLAT-2018 on 13th May and CLAT-2019 is
scheduled on 12th May). I am writing this in the month of August, so,
if you have started your preparation from this month, you are not late and you
can easily out power it with 5-6 hrs. Study on daily basis.
As per sections, I would like to begin with GS preparation,
which consists of Static GK and current affairs. So, one must start preparing
for current affairs from day one for a good amount of time and also pay your
attention on static portion. Though, it takes more than one fourth of your
study time, yet it covers one fourth of your paper and if you become well acquainted
with this subject, it will easily fetch you 40-45 marks just in 10 minutes.
Moving on with English preparation, the so called “Mool
mantra” will be to have a good no. of words in your kitty. For this you must
read vocabulary books. One of the finest books in this area is “Word power made
easy by Norman Lewis”. Other parts of English can be tackled by regular
practice of things like comprehension, spotting errors, Para jumbles, cloze
test etc.
I have seen a good no. of students have tackled these two
portions by reading newspaper. It’s really a smart strategy. Newspaper reading
is a must for its preparation. In my opinion, “The Hindu” and “Indian express”
are good newspaper to read. It will certainly benefit you in multiple ways.
Thirdly, legal aptitude consists of legal knowledge and
legal reasoning. If one has wide information regarding constitution and has
learnt legal maxims and words, then the legal knowledge part is done. For legal
reasoning, one must practice good no. of questions from any book comprising
previous year questions.
Reasoning carries 40 marks and one has to work hard to
secure good no. in this section. It’s a sure shot portion. If you have mastery
over this, you will easily get more than 30 marks out of this section. But this
section demands a good practice. If you can do by own, it’s good but if you can’t,
don’t be late. It will be better if you consult a teacher or join a coaching
institute for tricks and shortcuts. Practice many kinds of questions is the key
here.
Maths is the make or the break section as half of the CLAT
population do not even consider this section, which ultimately affects your
rank drastically. Another misconception which prevails is that maths curriculum
is only till 10th grade, so it can be easily solved by the students
who opted maths in their 12th standard. This might even be true to a
greater extent, but then due to paucity of time, students lag behind. Hence,
one must pay proper attention on Maths, practice daily and if possible, consult
any teacher for tricks.
Appearing mock test is another very essential core which
should not be ignored. One must go through large no. of mocks to understand
time management and be familiar with the pattern of questions.
One must not forget to solve previous year questions. These
are very helpful and make you understand the maximum pool from which questions
can be framed. Moreover, there are times, when questions get repeated, so it
helps in that way too.
Lastly, one must not underestimate oneself only on the fact
that he/she is not taking tuition. If you are determined and can stick to your routine
firmly, then you must move on without coaching. On the other hand, the one who cannot
do without coaching and thinks that he/she needs push to drive forward, must
not neglect importance of coaching and should register for one as soon as possible.
Eventually, stay calm, have faith in God and most
importantly believe in yourself.
Good Luck.
CLAT Exam Pattern – Overview
Exam – Common Law Admission Test
Duration – 2 hours
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Mode – Online
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Type of Questions – Multiple Choice Questions
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Number of Questions – 200 for Undergraduate and 150 for Postgraduate
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Language – English
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Total Marks - 200
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Marking scheme – 1 mark for correct answers; 0.25 marks deduction for incorrect answers
Mode of examination
Candidates will have to attempt the paper in online mode.Type of Questions Candidates will be given multiple choice where they need to mark any one of the four choices given. Total marks Aspirants of CLAT will be tested out of total marks of 200 for BA LLB and 150 marks for LLM programme. Marking Scheme Candidates will be awarded 1 mark each for correct answer in CLAT paper and 0.25 marks will be deducted for every incorrect response from the total CLAT score. Non-attempted questions will be awarded zero marks as no marks will be deducted for this. Sections for Undergraduate law programme Candidates who will appear in CLAT to seek admission into the undergraduate law programmes will be examined on the following sections -
Sections for Postgraduate law programme Candidates to appear in CLAT to seek admission into the postgraduate law programmes need to attempt the law examination from the following sections -
Section-wise distribution of marks for Postgraduate law programmes
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Universal's guide to CLAT
Universal's CLAT solved paper
Pearson' legal reasoning and awareness
Arithmetic maths, R.S Aggarwal
Critical reasoning, M.K Pandey
Logical reasoning, R.S Aggarwal
Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
English(Wren and Martin)
Objective English by S.P Bakshi
Lucent for static G.K
For Current Affairs, one should be regularly updated by online pedias such as cloudaffairs, gktoday, jagranjosh etc. if you are okay with online reading, otherwise monthly magazine of pratiyogita darpan or gktoday will work.
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