CLAT Exam Pattern has seen no changes over the years. But this year, NLU Odisha, Cuttack will hold the national level examination in pen-paper mode on May 26). The law entrance examination is conducted separately to enrol students to 3 year LLB, 5 year Integrated LLB and LLM programs. Know more
Separate question papers are set for all the courses, where all have a different structure and level of questions. However, the basic paper pattern in all CLAT Question Papers remains the same. It is given below:
- Duration of exam – Maximum time allowed to attempt the question paper is 2 hours.
- Type of questions – Objective type questions are asked in CLAT exam
- Medium of exam – The paper is set in English only
- Marking scheme – 1 mark is awarded for a correct response. There is negative marking of 0.25 marks for an incorrect response.
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CLAT Exam Pattern – LLB Program
The paper for LLB course is divided into five sections. The first section aims to check a candidate’s ability to logically solve a situation. The second section tests a candidate’s interest and knowledge for Law. Other sections evaluate candidate’s passage comprehension ability, mathematics and Basic English knowledge.
Section-wise questions distribution is given below:
| Section | Total Questions | Maximum Marks |
|---|---|---|
| English (including Comprehension) | 40 | 40 |
| GK and Current Affairs | 50 | 50 |
| Elementary Mathematics | 20 | 20 |
| Legal Aptitude | 50 | 50 |
| Logical Reasoning | 40 | 40 |
| Total | 200 Questions | 200 Marks |
CLAT Syllabus for LLB
Syllabus for the UG program covers questions from General Knowledge & Current Affairs, Legal Aptitude, English, Mathematics, Logical Reasoning. The GK and Legal Aptitude section will carry the highest weightage in the law entrance exam. The details regarding each course in order of their weightage is provided below:
In General Knowledge & Current Affairs
The syllabus is usually very vast and varied for this section. This section will include questions from both General Knowledge as well as Current Affairs. The questions on GK will test the static knowledge of candidates on some of the prominent aspects of national and international level.
Some of the frequently asked topics are:
- Outline of Indian Economy
- National Income of India
- Indian Tax Structure
- Major Industries in India
- Banking & Finance
Know How to Prepare for GK Section?
In Legal Aptitude
This section will cover the following topics:
- Legal fundamentals and terms
- Legal Maxims and Important Landmarks
- Supreme Court Judgments
Know How to Prepare for Legal Aptitude?
In English including Comprehension
This section aims to test the grammatical knowledge of candidates. The questions will focus on making corrections in sentences that are grammatically incorrect, jumbled sentences, idioms, and phrases etc. It will also include passage of approximately 300 – 400 words. Candidates have to answer questions based on the main theme of the passage as well as some of the keywords present in the passage.
Some of the important topics to be covered under this section are:
- Comprehension Passages
- Subject-Verb Agreement
- Noun
- Pronoun
- Adjective and Determinants
- Adverb
- Active Passive Voice
Know How to prepare for English Section?
In Logical Reasoning
The section on Logical Reasoning is aimed at checking a candidate’s ability to analyze patterns and arguments. This would include questions on syllogisms, logical sequences, analogies, etc. Understand and analyse various conditions set in questions and deduce correct conclusions.
The important topics under this section are:
- Logical Puzzles
- Statement Conclusions Derivation of Conclusions
- Cause & Effect Reasoning
- Statements Assumptions and Statement Arguments
Know How to prepare for Logical Reasoning?
InMathematics (Numerical Ability)
In this section, candidates will be asked to answer questions based on class 10th Mathematics syllabus (elementary mathematics). It will test candidate’s accuracy with numbers and calculations.
The key topics in this section are:
- Numbers
- HCF and LCM
- Fractions
- Logarithms
- Percentage
- Time &Distance
- Ratio & Proportion
Know How to prepare for Mathematics?
CLAT Exam Pattern – LLM Program
Exam Pattern for CLAT LLM program will encompass topics from Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, Contract, Torts, Criminal Law, International Law, IPR etc. LLM Paper will have as many as 150 objective type questions. Sectional distribution of questions is indicated below:
| Section | Total Questions | Maximum Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Constitutional Law | 50 | 50 |
| Jurisprudence | 50 | 50 |
| Other Law Subjects | 50 | 50 |
| Total | 150 Questions | 150 Marks |
CLAT LLM Syllabus
Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence will both have an equal weightage of 50 marks each in the question paper. Whereas, the rest of the questions will be coming from different topics like Criminal law, International Law, etc. The details regarding Constitutional law and Jurisprudence is given below for reference:
Constitutional Law consists various rules, practices, and doctrines that govern the functioning of a modern state and other political communities. Candidates will be asked questions based on concepts that they have studied in their graduation.
Jurisprudence in a broad sense can be called the “philosophy of law”. It is classified into three branches – analytical, sociological, and theoretical. The questions in this section will be set on the basis of the syllabus prescribed in the graduation degree course.
The Tort Law is comparatively a recent common law development in India based on codifying statutes including statutes related to damages. Some of the crucial tortious obligations like Negligence, Nuisance and Defamation should be revised in detail.
Contract can be referred to as a piece of legal document which is a mutual agreement made by two or more parties, enforceable by law. Important decisions made by Supreme Court and High Court in relation to modern day commercial activities form a very crucial part of this subject.
Criminal Law, also known as Penal Law is aimed at regulation of Social code of conduct and prohibition of any antisocial activity that poses a threat to the safety, property, health and moral welfare of citizens. Significant topics on principles of criminal liability and mens rea (“guilty mind” in Criminal Law) should be given special attention.
International Law as a subject is focused on the set of legal guidelines and contracts that govern the relations between two states or nations. International Laws can be broadly classified into Public International law, Private International Law and Supranational Law.
Check Detailed CLAT LLM Syllabus
CLAT Recommended Books
CLAT is a topmost competitive law entrance exam and it requires a thorough revision of all the topics. There is no right time to start for the exam, but it is always better to start as soon as you decide to sit for the exam. Hence, it becomes important for a candidate to prepare a schedule, know where all they should study for CLAT. Check How to prepare for CLAT
Candidates can refer following books to prepare for CLAT 2018:
| Name of CLAT Books | Author | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Word Power Made Easy | Norman Lewis | English |
| Objective General English | R. S. Aggarwal | |
| Quantitative Aptitude For Competitive Examinations | R. S. Aggarwal | Mathematics |
| Quantitative Aptitude For Competitive Exam 6th Edition | Abhijit Guha | |
| Legal Aptitude For The CLAT – Workbook: A Workbook | A.P. Bhardwaj | Legal Aptitude |
| A Modern Approach To Logical Reasoning | R. S. Aggarwal | Logical Reasoning |
| Analytical Reasoning | M K Pandey | |
| Manorama Yearbook 2017 (English) | Mammen Mathew | General Knowledge |
| Quick Reference General Knowledge | Edgar Thorpe |
CLAT 2017 Paper Analysis
For the academic session 2017-18, the Common Law Admission Test was conducted on May 14, 2017, for both UG & PG Courses. CLAT Result was declared on May 29, 2017. The question paper was similar to previous year pattern comprising of following section-wise distribution:-
| Section | Number of Questions | Good Attempt | Good Score | Difficulty Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 40 | 35 – 36 | 31 – 32 | Easy |
| General Knowledge | 50 | 30- 32 | 26 – 27 | Moderate |
| Elementary Mathematics | 20 | 10 – 11 | 9 – 10 | Moderate |
| Legal Aptitude | 50 | 39 – 40 | 34 -35 | Easy-Moderate |
| Logical Reasoning | 40 | 34 – 35 | 30 – 32 | Easy-Moderate |
A brief about CLAT Paper Analysis 2017 is as follows:
English Section
- This section was one of the easiest section.
- The section was divided into 4 types of questions.
- It included 1 comprehension passage with 10 questions based on it, identifying a grammatical error in questions, questions on idioms, migratory words and spelling mistakes and some vocabulary based questions.
General Knowledge Section
- In this section, 35 questions were based on Current Affairs
- And there were 15 questions from General Awareness section.
Check Detailed CLAT Paper Analysis 2017
Legal Aptitude Section
- There were questions from contracts, torts and other types of law questions.
- 15 questions out of 50 were quite easy to attempt.
- Overall students felt the questions did not require any prior knowledge to solve this section
Logical Reasoning
- In this section, 23 questions were of a verbal type and 17 questions were from the Analytical part.
- In most of the questions, 2 options were such that it was easily decodable that they are not the correct option. So students had to choose answer only from 2 options.
CLAT Exam Pattern FAQs
Ques. Who will be conducting CLAT 2019?
Ans. CLAT is conducted by 19 NLUs as per their year of establishment. Hence, CLAT 2019 will be conducted by the National University of Advanced Legal Studies or NUALS Kochi on May 16, 2019.
Ques. Are there any changes introduced in the mode of law examination?
Ans. Yes, from 2019 onwards, The Common Law Admission Test or CLAT will be conducted in offline mode only.
Ques. What will be the medium of CLAT Exam?
Ans. Like previous years, the medium of the Common Law Admission Test will be English only.
Ques. Are there any changes made in CLAT Exam Pattern by the conducting body?
Ans. No, the authorities have not yet notified any changes in the exam pattern of LLB and LLM paper. The paper pattern is as follows:
| Particulars | LLB Program | LLM Program |
|---|---|---|
| Mode of Exam | Offline | Offline |
| Medium of Exam | English | English |
| Duration of Exam | 120 minutes | 120 minutes |
| Type of Questions | MCQs | MCQs + Subjective |
| No. of Questions | 200 | 150 |
| Marking Scheme | +1/ -0.25 | +1/ 0.25 |
Ques. How can I prepare for CLAT online?
Ans. Apart from coaching centers, there are various other mediums through which one can prepare for CLAT. They are as follows:
- CLAT Sample Papers/ Previous Year Papers – Download Now
- Online mock tests – Click Here
- CLAT Quizzes
| Topic Name | Reference Links | |
|---|---|---|
| Prepositions | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 |
| Analogies | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 |
| Spellings | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 |
| Antonyms | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 |
| Sentence Correction | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 |
| Synonyms | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 |
| Para Jumbles | Quiz 1 | (-) |
Preparing from these sources will not only help you to analyse the status of your preparation but will also gain confidence for the law entrance examination.
Ques. Is the exam pattern of AILET and CLAT similar?
Ans. No, the exam pattern for both the exams are different. They paper pattern for CLAT and AILET is as follows:
| Particulars | CLAT | AILET |
|---|---|---|
| Mode of Exam | Offline | Offline |
| Number of Questions | For LLB – 200 For LLM – 150 | For LLB – 150 For LLM – 100 |
| Duration of Exam | 120 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Total Marks | For LLB – 200 marks For LLM – 150 marks | For LLB – 150 marks For LLM – 100 marks |
Ques. Can the books for AILET be used for preparing for CLAT exam?
Ans. Yes, the books recommended for AILET exam can be used for preparing for CLAT. The only difference between the examinations are the pattern and the conducting bodies. NLU Delhi is the conducting body of AILET, whereas, 19 NLUs holds CLAT on rotational basis.Check CLAT Syllabus
Ques. Can I refer CLAT recommended books for JMI law entrance exam?
Ans. Yes, the books for the Common Law Admission Test can be referred for preparing for Jamia Milia Islamia law exam.