The Common Law Admission
Test 2019
streamlined, and is all set in its new format
The
Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) has been the gateway to step into the premier
National Law Universities since 2008, and every year, a growing number of
students write this entrance test to join these coveted law schools. CLAT,
hitherto, was conducted by different National Law Schools on rotation with no
permanent board/committee. In the last couple of years, CLAT has been plagued
with errors in questions and answers, besides technical glitches in the conduct
of the entrance test, thereby shattering the confidence and dreams of thousands
of students.
Changes
In
early October this year, for the first time, a CLAT consortium was formed to
regulate the exam. The CLAT consortium has announced the date of the next exam
as May 12, 2019. In a major move, the consortium has decided that CLAT 2019
will be an offline exam. This decision was taken following complaints from
students across the country in the last few years about technical glitches in
the conduct of the online CLAT exam. Though the exam is conducted by different
law schools in rotation each year, this year, a permanent CLAT Secretariat has
been established in the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) campus
in Bengaluru. This is a much-needed system to streamline conduct of the exam.
CLAT 2019 will be conducted by an executive committee of the consortium
consisting of NLSIU (Bengaluru), NALSAR (Hyderabad), NLU (Bhopal), and CLAT
Convenor of the year, which is NLU (Odisha) and the CLAT Convenor of next year
along with few other member universities. The exam is expected to shortly
launch its permanent website which will carry all pertinent information
relating to CLAT 2019. With this arrangement in place, it is hoped that the
exam will be devoid of errors and lapses.
With
about six months to go for CLAT 2019, law aspirants must start preparation
right away.
Systematic planner
CLAT is
a simple aptitude test which tests a students’ competence in subjects such as
English, arithmetic, general knowledge, and logical and legal reasoning. Though
the content of the exam is simple, it is the time factor and negative marking,
which makes the entrance test challenging. The question paper has 200 questions
to be tackled in 120 minutes and 0.25 marks deducted for every wrong answer.
English
This
section tests the students’ vocabulary including Latin words, grammar skills
and comprehension ability. Students who are voracious readers and those who
have an eye for grammar usually do well. However, many students, these days,
have trouble with this section owing to decline in reading habit.
Arithmetic
This
segment tests students’ basic math skills by testing them on topics such as
profit and loss, ratios, time, work and distance, simple and compound interest,
averages and other general math topics which are learnt in the
middle-and-high-school level. Since time is a constraint in this exam, students
need to employ strategic thinking and “short-cuts” to arrive at solutions.
General knowledge
This
segment aims at finding out students’ awareness of current happenings and general
topics. A good memory and systematic preparation of a wide gamut of topics such
as world organisations, history, everyday science, books and authors and such
other topics are required. Reading newspapers is an indispensable requirement
to ace the current affairs questions asked in this section. The availability of
several current affairs apps and dedicated general knowledge websites have made
students’ preparation quite easy.
Logical reasoning
To
assess the lateral thinking of aspirants, this segment has been designed. Word
and number analogy, direction sense test, puzzles, relationship tests,
syllogism, critical reasoning form the core of this section. Thanks to the
oympiad exams initiated by schools right from primary level onwards, most
students can crack this section with confidence. However, the key to high score
in this section is loads and loads of practice, as students need to hone these
problem-solving techniques.
Legal reasoning
The
selection test to study in top law schools will be incomplete without testing
basic analytical reasoning ability of law aspirants. Since every legal
professional needs strong deductive reasoning skills, this section has
questions which include a legal premise followed by a situation and four
plausible conclusions. Students are expected to choose the most appropriate
answer on the lines of the given legal principle while remaining unemotional.
This segment also tests students’ awareness of contemporary legal developments
and basic legal awareness. Working out the past year papers of CLAT will give
you a clear idea of what to expect in this section.
Students
aspiring to study law must develop a keen interest in the functioning of the
Constitution and other laws.
Tips and strategies
1.
Begin your systematic preparation well in advance, preferably
six to eight months prior to the examination. Last–minute preparation hardly
helps.
2.
Take sample/mock CLAT tests to assess yourself. This will help
you understand your strengths and weaknesses.
3.
There are no quick-fix
methods to tackle your poor vocabulary. Reading is the only time-tested method
to enlarge your vocabulary, however, reading vocabulary building books does
help.
4.
Reading newspapers and quality books has in-built advantages
such as widening your current affairs knowledge, improving your reading speed
and building a robust vocabulary, all of which are required for a successful
career in law.
5.
Since time is a vital factor, taking mock tests and doing
practice tests at regular intervals will improve speed.
6.
Since the level of math tested is of basic standard, students
should take it as an opportunity to develop basic arithmetic ability, which
will be useful later in professional life.
7.
Students aspiring to study law must develop a keen interest in
the functioning of the Constitution and other laws. Further, a strong interest
in political and international developments will kindle their enthusiasm to
pursue law.
8.
While there are excellent
job prospects upon completion of law degree, students should not have myopic
view of just placements and salaries, rather cultivate a desire for knowledge
in all facets of law and hone excellent communication and reasoning skills to
become a top-notch legal professional.
9.
The preparation style for
an entrance exam vastly differs from that of a Board exami. Constant
test-taking and analysing test performances and varying strategies in
approaching the exam hold key to success in this exam.
10. Finally, a strong will
power, tons of hard work, perseverance and valuable guidance are truly the
secrets of success in not just CLAT but any entrance test.
Coaching classes starts from 10 Nov-2018
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