Before I begin, I’d like to tell you all that I am neither a licensed teacher, or a law student, or a lawyer for that matter. I have simply researched a lot for this topic and am shedding light on all the avenues, you as a student have to apply for the CLAT exam.
What Is CLAT?
For those of you who have never heard of it before, CLAT stands for Common Law Admissions Test. It is a standard All-India test which Law institutes to admit students for their undergraduate and postgraduate programs. The program gives you a degree in LLB, which stands for Bachelors of Law and LLM, which stands for Masters of Law. The examination is conducting by the most prominent law institutes in the country which keep rotating the responsibility between them.
There are some things you need to know before you decide to apply for CLAT. There are 22 nationally, and internationally recognised law institutes in our country which are also the first colleges for conducting the national CLAT exam. There is no upper age limit for the Clat exam for its undergraduate course. Another good news, the CLAT exam doesn’t have any limit on the number of attempts you can make. Most students, however, take a year or two as drop years and write the exam then.
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How Do You Decide On Writing CLAT?
Writing the CLAT exam is not a single decision. It is not something you can do parallel to other studies. You need to make time for it and study diligently, and then you will have some hope to write the entrance exam.
More than this, it is essential that you know whether you genuinely want to study law. Law is challenging. It is not just about the money you stand to earn. Law is the pursuit and upholding of liberty. The path you take in law can show how you serve your people. To study law, you study people. You don’t just talk; you listen too.
And aside from this, there is more to the law than you could presume. Law is all about story-telling. It is about creating a cohesive story that will sit well with the judge and the jury. You learn the art of convincing people, becoming confident, and the freedom to write a narrative.
If you want to do all these things, and then more, then yes, law is the right place for you to go.
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How Do I Start Preparing For The CLAT?
So the CLAT exam doesn’t have a syllabus that you will need a specific time studying in, except for legal aptitude. To break it down, you have five subjects to study. Your topics are general knowledge, English, Mathematics, logical and analytical reasoning and finally, legal aptitude. There are some pretty simple methods to follow to get a hold of these subjects and soon, command them. You could research further and choose the procedure more comfortable to you, but here are some sources we found to help.
Dishing the Details on the Best Ways to Ace The Syllabus.
For general knowledge, you need to read the newspaper every day. Additionally, study books on current affairs and dates or such. While day to day news gives you an account of what is happening at the moment, current affairs refresh your memory to significant instances in history for human beings.
For news, newspapers or online news websites are useful. Check your sources before you read the article. Newspaper houses like the Reuters, The Hindu in India give impartial and legitimate news. Various websites provide material for catching up with all the current affairs of the world.
For English, your already inculcated habit of reading newspapers will majorly help. In such cases, read the open page in The Hindu. You will learn to question society and find some writers with solid arguments, and impeccable English. Use this opportunity to construct your arguments in proper English. Read these articles at a go, increasing your capacity with the days. Comprehension is crucial.
Maths requires practice. Obtain the syllabus of what shall be asked, and then retrieve books to practice from. Previous Question Papers are very handy in times like these. There are numerous websites like StudyIQ or IASguru that have such previous papers, both old and mock papers that is.
Logical Reasoning, just as maths, requires practice. Not necessarily to get better at it, but to sharpen your brain to respond to these kinds of questions faster. Time your solving and start slotting the amount of time you shall be given to each section.
Legal Aptitude requires practice, mugging up, and undivided attention. Legal Aptitude is a new topic, and you can watch about them more and more on Youtube channels across the site. You can understand better from somebody else’s voice more than our inner comprehension.
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Time For The Exam!
There are some kickers when it comes to the CLAT exam. While there is no cap on the number of attempts a single individual can put in, there is negative marking in the exam while you get one mark for each correct question. You shall at the same time get 0.25 marks negative for a wrong answer.
The pattern and weightage are fixed for each year and gives you a chance to devise your own strategy to solve the paper the fastest and most thoroughly. Solving old question papers help with this. The maximum weightage is placed on General knowledge and Legal reasoning. So brush up on your facts and specific details and breeze through this section. Each of the other subjects works exactly like a competitive olympiad. Remember that legal reasoning isn’t an MCQ based question paper.
Our final advice would be that it is never too late to start, and if you feel like the law will help you find your purpose in life, the CLAT and the law life are for you.