CLAT, like many other entrances, is an aptitude-based exam and requires discipline and determination. Unlike exams like JEE or NEET, CLAT is not a technical exam that requires rigorous learning. With the right preparation strategy, one can crack CLAT with 6 months of preparation easily. CLAT assesses students in areas like English, Legal Reasoning, and Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Aptitude. Below you will find a comprehensive guide on how to prepare for each section properly.
English:
This section carries 22-27 questions and mostly involves comprehension-based questions. You will also find questions about English grammar including tenses, sentence formation, and subject-verb agreement, among others. Questions on vocabulary, synonyms, and antonyms are also often found and if prepared properly, can help you fetch marks.
Below you will some preparation strategies to ace this section:
a) Understand the exam pattern:Go through previous years’ question papers to know the kind of questions to expect. This will help you tailor your preparation to cover extremely important topics that are recurring in the exam. While going through the past year’s papers, it is also crucial that you solve them.
b) Practice reading: Since this section is fully comprehension-based, you require a good reading speed. The passages given are usually around 450 words and range from diverse topics like science, society, medicine, policies, etc. Thus, reading diverse literature can help you in this regard. Reading newspaper Editorials is a great way to enhance your reading speed as well as to build a good vocabulary.
c) Practice Grammar: To improve your grammar skills, you can refer to books like Wren & Martin which cover every topic of grammar and are easy to understand. You can also solve various quizzes and mock tests to test your knowledge.
Legal Reasoning:
This section forms the majority chunk of the paper and you can expect around 28-32 sections. This section entails legal passages which are followed by questions based on that passage. To perform well in this section, it is expected that you are aware of basic legal principles from topics like constitution, torts, contracts, etc.
Below are some preparation tips:
a) Be aware of current legal happenings: Usually the passages given are based on current legal events. Thus, to familiarize yourself with such passages, staying updated and reading a newspaper daily becomes necessary. While learning about any current legal event, you must also dig deeper and learn about relevant legal provisions, legal vocabulary, and principles.
b) Practice: Questions in this section are application-based, thus you can ace this section only through practice. Questions in this section are mostly analytical based, so solving previous year’s questions and solving mock tests can help you with that.
Current Affairs including General Knowledge:
This section also forms one of the major parts of the exam. It has something around 28-30 questions which also includes static General Knowledge questions. This section is also the most dreaded section amongst students owing to its vast syllabus. However, with the right strategy, this can be the highest-scoring subject.
Below are a few tips that can help you ace this section:
a) Newspaper reading: The first step to prepare for this section is to cultivate the habit of reading a newspaper daily, without fail. Newspapers like The Hindu or The Indian Express are considered to offer important news pieces, from an examination point of view. Thus, reading a good newspaper daily would help you stay abreast of current events.
b) Making notes: Storing all the relevant information and news in one place comes in very handy during revisions, and moreover, making handwritten notes is also a great way to aid faster learning.
Logical reasoning:
This section is often touted to be the highest-scoring one. You can expect around 22-26 questions in this section and it includes questions on topics like blood relations, syllogisms, logical sequences, statements and assumptions, etc. To prepare well for this section, practice takes priority over memorizing.
A few tips to do well in this section can be found below:
a) Solve previous year’s papers: Go through the previous question papers to understand the exam pattern and know the kind of questions that are recurring in this section. Questions on identifying the assumption, finding the main point, or inference-based questions are almost always asked and thus, are the most important topics.
b) Learn shortcuts: There are many different ways and approaches that can help you derive the right answer. Implementing these novel methods and shortcuts can increase your accuracy while also saving a lot of time.
Quantitative Aptitude:
This section carries a lot less weightage than other sections and since a lot of students fear maths, they decide to leave the section entirely. However, that is not the right choice. If you can manage to get a few answers right in this section, it can have a huge impact on your rank. You can expect to see 13-17 questions in this section.
Below are a few preparation tips you can follow:
a) Understand the previous year’s trends: Go through past year’s papers and analyze the questions. Note the topics that are recurring every year. Questions on percentages, mensuration and time, speed, and distance are almost always found.
b) Practice, practice, practice: The only way to prepare for this section is by practicing as much as you can. Solve mock tests, quizzes, and previous year’s papers to enhance your problem-solving abilities.
Cracking CLAT with preparation of 6-7 months is not an impossible task if you are a diligent worker and are determined to achieve results. The above points, if followed religiously, can help you prepare for this exam with ease. At Manu Law Classes, it is our motto to prepare students not for exams but for life. We ensure that students are not forced to rote learn, and rather, we intend that students are able to understand the concepts that can help them all their lives. We understand that not every student is perfect in all the subjects, but we all believe that with our common passion for hard work shared with students, we make students ready to beat the exam with success. or any queries related to the CLAT exam or OLET, or even for the purposes of counseling, kindly contact us at +91 9971444054, +91 9971335561, or you can visit our Website and we will be happy to help you.
