How to Prepare for CLAT 2021?

Holidays are round the corner and so is the CLAT entrance exam that’s all set to gift anxiety, pressure, tension and loads of topics that are still required to be covered. CLAT has always been a topic of great discussion in India either for its unpredictable changes in the syllabus or for the level of difficulty that they put into setting the question paper for a 12th pass out. In spite of that, it never restrains the determined minds to come up with flying colors. So what capacitates them in doing so? It takes strategy, consistency and a lot of hard work. Let’s look into some of these. 

Strategy for CLAT

The main strategy is to start! There is never going to be a day or time to start preparing oneself for the same, but whenever you start is the right time. It always takes a string of thoughts to make a plan but to execute the same is important and so start it at its earliest. The only thing required is a study plan. Dividing the subjects, keeping in touch with the stronger subjects, working more upon the weaker ones, making the overall score stand up and other important points are to be considered while making a study plan strong. 

Syllabus for CLAT 2021

Now coming to the smart study plan that we need to make, which is going to be in accordance to the syllabus that is supposed to be covered for the entrance exam. So, basically the CLAT exam consists of 6 sections. 

• The first section is English, which includes comprehensive English. Students tend to consider this section as the scoring one because of the mere fact that comprehensive English is something we’ve been reading from our school days so most of us are aware of this concept. It includes the understanding of passage, the theme it revolves around, words and their meaning, filling the blanks, etc. But that doesn’t mean that it is to be taken for granted. 

• The next section is General Knowledge and Current Affairs. In order to work on the General knowledge part, there are a lot of things that can be done, like reading newspapers on daily basis, downloading the apt apps in the phone and juggling through the news channels whenever get a chance. Getting to know the national and international affairs, current affairs, etc. is what is focused in this section. 

• The next in the line is Mathematics. The subject that children are the most terrified of. Well, there’s nothing to be terrified of but the experiences we have with this subject makes it impossible to think the other way. Well at least for some of us. But obviously this can be tackled and working to make the weaker subjects and turning them into the scoring one should exactly be the strategy we need. This section tests the elementary knowledge of the candidate upon the subject so let’s practice it until the fear ends or converts into confidence. 

• The last section is the Legal aptitude and Logical reasoning. The name of the section already suggests that this section id going to test the knowledge of the candidate regarding the topics related to law, research aptitude, problem solving ability based on law related problems, etc. this is obviously an important section because the whole exam revolves around law so the candidate would be expected to have adequate knowledge and preparation related to legal topics. 

• The last one is the section of Legal Reasoning that would test the reasoning of the candidate through an array of topics like syllogism, logical sequences or analogies, etc.

Eligibility Criteria

The Upcoming Offline CLAT UG exam will be conducted on May 9th, 2021 and the last date for submission of Online applications is from January 1st to March 31st, 2021. Those students who secured 45% marks or higher in their 10+2 exams will be eligible to appear for CLAT UG 2021. The cut-off is 40% for Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe candidates. The application fee for the exam is Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 3,500 for SC/ST candidates.

Marking and Pattern

The exam would consist of 150 no. of questions in total which earlier used to be 200. And it is in objective format i.e. one question with 4 options where the right one or the one which is the closest to the right answer. For every right answer the candidate gets 1 mark. But wait! Do not forget about the negative marking i.e.; 0.25 marks to be subtracted for every wrong answer. 

• The English section consists of almost 28-32 questions that are 20% of the paper.

• The General section of 35-39 question that’s 25%.

• The Legal section consists of almost 28-32 questions and;

• Quantities aptitude of almost 13-17 questions. So, let us set our priorities.

Do’s and Don’ts

So now we know the exam pattern, the subjects, the marks distribution, and marking scheme. Now we need to think about the do’s and don’ts. What we are required to do is to practice the subjects that we think to be at our not-so-strong spot. 

• Say if it is mathematics (just say), then we’ve got to practice it till it gets better to an extent where it only helps to add to the total marks. There is always a need to push our limits in order to get better.

• On the other hand, if there is a subject the candidate thinks to be good at, say English, then we just have to consistent at practicing them. The better it gets, the better it gets for us.

• On the other hand, for the don’ts, we have got to remember that there is going to be negative marking, and so we have got to skip the questions we are not totally confident of. The simple reason being, none would desire to lose marks out of their total score.

• So, if we are not completely sure of a question, better to leave it to save the total score. Other thing to not do is to not rush. Questions attempted in a hurry have more chance of being wrong than being lucky enough to get them right.

Cut-offs

Well the cut-offs generally vary from year to year, but according to the data of last few years, the top NLUs start their cut-offs from 120 to 115. Like the closing cut off of the last few years have been ranging from 110-120 on an average (based on the reports). There is no surety as to the cut off because it totally depends upon the level of difficulty the question paper has. If it’s a difficult one then the cut-offs generally stand lower than those years where the questions papers are relatively difficult.

Conclusion

Our major focus should be at stepping out of the comfort zone and pushing the limits without focusing on the end result because that has to fall in the fate if the hard work was genuine and sincere. When we as a student prepare for an entrance exam or any other exam, only we know best the efforts and determination that is put by us. So when we get the end results, we know where we worked hard, where we lacked the determination and discipline. But what’s important is to not get discouraged when the end result does not favor us, but to take notes and come back even harder.