The Common law admission test (CLAT)is basically one seeking admission in the top law colleges in india. The CLAT Examination is conducted almost every year by the Consortium of NLUs. The CLAT score is applicable at all the National Law universities(NLU’s) except NLU Delhi. It was established in the 2017 so that by a common law entrance exam student can get the admission easily in aregularised manner.
CLAT 2023 Syllabus
The CLAT 2023 Exam will be performed in open paper mode where the paper will have 150 questions will be asked from five different subjects including English language ,General Knowledge & Current Affairs, Quantitative technique (data interpretation and Mathematics), Legal Aptitude and Logical Reasoning.
In the English language , one has to read a passage of around 450 words thats include the fiction and non fiction passage and based on that a few question would be asked and one will have to answer them. Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to show your comprehension and language skills, including your abilities to Evaluate the important point discussed in the passage, as well as any arguments and viewpoints discussed or set out in the passage. Interpretations and conclusions based on the passage given. Summarise the passage and understand the meaning of various word, phrase and different view point set out in the passage.
Curent affair
Current affairs include general knowledge that is vastly distributed among various sector. This current affair section included question related to national and international affairs, it can include from politics , art and culture , historical event of continuing service.
Legal reasoning
In this section, you will be supposed to read passages of around 400 -450 words each. The passages may relate to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters, public policy questions or moral philosophical query . There is no requirement as any prior knowledge of law. You will benefit from a general prospect of legal and moral issues to better apply the introspect of general principles of given scenario. Each passage would be followed by a series of questions that will require you to Identify and evaluate the rules and principles set out in the passage; to apply such rules and principles to various factual situations; and accept the changes accordingly
Logical reasoning
The Logical Reasoning part of the UG-CLAT covers a series of small passages of about 300-350 words approximately. Each paragraph will be followed by one or more questions that will need you to deeply analyse that the pattern of logical reasoning is like a set pattern which is followed and one has to answer accordingly. Identify an problem, its roots and conclusions; Read and analyse the arguments set out in the passage. One has to come to a conclusion what follows from the passage and apply these conclusion to a new situations.
Quantitative Techniques
The Quantitative Techniques (Maths) section of the UG-CLAT will cover small sets of facts or propositions, graphs, either other textual, pictorial and diagrammatic representations of numerical information, followed by a set of questions. You are supposed to derive information from such passages, graphs, or other representations, and apply mathematical operations on such information. The questions will require you to takeout the numerical information and accordingly answer should be based on it.
Basic 10th standard mathematical question on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra( HCF LCM and simplification), mensuration(volume and areas) data interpretation and statistical estimation.
The CLAT 2021 pattern has been modified and a new syllabus has been introduced. The difficulty level has been raised because now it’s more of reading the passage, understanding it and then analysing it. The syllabus and breakup of mark for each section discussed above are as follow
| Subject | No. Of Questions | Percent No. Of Question |
|---|---|---|
| English | 28-32 | 20% |
| General Knowledge | 35-40 | 25% |
| Logical Reasoning | 28-32 | 20% |
| legal reasoning | 35-40 | 25% |
| quantitative techniques | 13-17 | 10% |
Apart from this CLAT there are other law entrance examination which are also applicable to other law university of different part of India.They are as follow:
⦁ DUET National law examination conducted by Delhi university (for UG and PG courses)
⦁ AILET All India Law Entrance Test which is conducted by National Law University Delhi (NLU delhi)
⦁ BLAT banaras law entrance test
⦁ MHCET maharashtra law entrance test
⦁ LSAT law admission test of india
⦁ CULEE crisis law university bangalore
⦁ SLAT symbiosis law admission test
⦁ Other state examination
The syllabus for the law entrance for the above college, it is more or less same as that of CLAT. For the legal reasoning part of the syllabus it includes good understanding of legal terms & maxim , law of tort , law of contract , law of crimes, IPR , family law , international law , constitutional law and other important legal topics or current legal cases or judgement in a recent newspaper.
Strategy / Plan for the Preparation
Enroll in a Crash course
⦁ Sample paper : do as many as the sample paper as possible that will help you to clear the subject knowledge.
⦁ Mock test : attempt to do the mock test weekly.
⦁ Study for at least 6 hrs-8 hrs daily and practice everyday in 120 min you have to solve 150 question so practice plays a very important role.
⦁ Read Newspaper daily especially the editorial part and the current news.
⦁ Revision is also very important part.
⦁ Try giving online test as many as possible
Topics covered under the various head
English :In the language part the areas covered are Comprehension , Vocabulary , figurative speech irony and passage,article preposition , active and passive verb , idioms and other simple grammar . For english part of CLAT english the comprehensive book by Wren and Martin is sufficient.
Logical reasoning/ critical reasoning : Question based on assumption, forefitness inference, premises and conclusion, syllogism, number series, puzzle test , blood relation . One can refer to critical reasoning by MK Pandey.
Legal Aptitude: It is more of GK based as the question is based current news based on legal subject like constitution torts criminal law contract recent landmark judgement. Questions asked can be direct or indirect. For better understanding of this part can refer to legal aptitude book By A V Bhardwaj
Quantitative techniques : It includes data Interpretation which include pie chart bar diagram bar graph tabular diagram line graph etc and General Maths include volume percentage ratio and proportion time and distance algebra average.
Current affairs and general knowledge : Best way to prepare for this section is to read the newspaper (indian express & the hindu) daily, especially the editorial part and the first page of the newspaper.
CLAT PG- Common law admission test post graduation LLM
In this section the CLAT programme LLM , it is basically divided into two parts multiple choice question and subjective question . The MCQ parts contains 100 question equals to 1 mark each(100*1=100 marks) and the descriptive part contain 2 question carries 25 mark each(25*2 =50 marks)Candidate who secure 40% of marks(35% in case of SC ST PWD) marks in objective section will qualify for the evaluation of their answer in the descriptive section. One has to achieve at least 40% of marks in the first section that is the multiple choice so that they are eligible for the evaluation of the other section. For example if you score 39% of marks then your subjective part will not be evaluated and you will fail the test. Therefore the MCQ part of the test is very important. From the last year i.e 2021 the pattern of the CLAT has been modified, that is now there is more emphasis on the reading part , the student appearing must have the reading knowledge really strong. Infact the question in the legal reasoning part will also be in the passage form and the question will be based on that passage.
The First part of CLAT PG covers the multiple choice question( 100 questions) which includes the foundational knowledge of each law subject i.e tax law business law IPC CPC CRPC labour law , heavy emphasis on constitutional law and good knowledge of administrative law and bare act of respective state law. The Second part of CLAT PG covers subjective questions (25 marks each) . In this section you have to attempt only two essay type questions on the topic of law and contemporary issues. Negative marking of 0.25 will be deducted for every wrong answer only in the MCQ section and there will be no negative marking in the subjective section.
Area to be covered for the preparation of CLAT PG -LLM entrance programme
⦁ notes to the supreme court judgement
⦁ some important current judgement published in the news paper(maratha reservation)
⦁ judgement in judgment
⦁ any doctrines or theories discussed in the judgement
⦁ meaning of the legal maxim used in the judgement
⦁ create a map of judgement
⦁ skim through the judgement
⦁ make your own notes from the legal research