CLAT Exam Syllabus Pattern – Eligibility Criteria | Exam Tips & Strategies. Are you in class 11 or 12 and super confused about what to do next? Don’t worry, a lot of people in your age group are. This article will help you narrow down your choices considerably. We will assess most career options later, but today’s article specifically deals with Law as a career and how to make the most of it.
Before we move further let’s go back a good 20 years to understand what was it like to study law in the 90’s or even the 2000’s. Till the last 10 years, the law wasn’t a career option that the brightest of students would opt for. Engineering, medicine, and commerce ruled the way. There was an unsaid rule that law was for people who had nothing better to do. So, people graduated and turned to law while pursuing some other professional course such as a CA / CS etc. Little were they aware at the time that the tides were turning in Law’s favour. Top grade lawyers were minting money, while lower grade lawyers weren’t that well off. But, at the turn of the century the corporate world took to hiring sharp legal professionals from the top National Law Universities (NLS Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad and NUJS Kolkata) and paid them a considerable sum of money to look after their legal divisions. The trend started shifting, more and more companies started following this practice and started shelling out more cash. And then boom! The revolution started. Scores of students started sitting for the CLAT (the entrance you have to crack to make it to a top law school in the country). The number of CLAT aspirants has been booming and was at an all time high at 60000 in 2023. So, as the trend shifted, the true litmus test was meted out. Whether Law can be comparable to a traditional Medicine or an engineering career. The quick answer to that is, it’s taking precedence over those traditional career options.
Why the change? The top NLU’s focussed on training their students holisitically with the sole aim to create superb brains in the legal fraternity, and oh boy! did they do it well? Most of the firms who hired initially were so happy with the graduates’ performance that they went back and hired more. This is trending at its peak as of now.
The BA LLB course at the top National Law Universities is a potent blend of Law and the arts. It trains you to think like a master, it exposes you to various situations, it exposes you to international experiences and it assimilates the brightest minds in the country. These, and many more make these dream schools to study in after the 12th exam.
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How do you go about getting into Law school?
In india, the CLAT is the ultimate entrance exam you can take to crack into the best Law Schools in the country. Other exams like the AILET (for NLU – Delhi), Symbiosis Entrance Test (Symbiosis Law) and LSAT (for Jindal) are also prominent exams. But CLAT is the key as it gains you access to the creme de la creme of Law schools, i.e National Law Universities.
The CLAT is a 150 mark 2 hour exam with a negative marking of 1/4th for every wrong answer. So, strategy and accuracy, among other things, which are discussed elsewhere in our blogs, become the key to the top in CLAT.
Let’s quickly look at some key strategies that you can follow to be sorted for CLAT 2023:
Reading Habit, read more! Yes, you have to cultivate a good reading habit if you want to crack CLAT and top the exam. The entire exam is in English and Reading Comprehension and Legal reasoning will test you on how quickly you can read an assimilate information to answer specific questions. Even the logic section requires considerable reading in as much that you have to read fast to understand the scenario to answer questions. To ensure that you read like a pro, try to read the Hindu everyday. Look out for an editorial that interests you and read it top down with a thorough understanding of what the author is trying to portray. It might take a while initially, but trust me, the timing will improve steadily as you read more and more.
Reading for GK:
General Knowledge (Static GK and Current Affairs) is 50 marks in the exam and constitutes of 1/4th of the total marks. Reading the Hindu everyday should be enough to top out this section. But being sincere, taking regular notes and reviewing the news everyday is essential for this. You can check out the OPUS Supplements for GK. That’s your ultimate resource.
Taking Mocks:
Once you’re done with you concepts get the board and start hitting the mocks. Mocks are the most crucial aspect of your CLAT preparation where you’re actually testing yourself in a real CLAT scenario. You will be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses. That’s the best way to help you work on those areas that you’re weak in and improve. Also real MOCKS will help you gauge where you stand in terms of timing, strategy, topic clarity, conceptual clarity and speed. Please take as many mocks as you can before you sit for the real CLAT.
Reviewing Mocks:
Once you’ve taken your mocks, don’t just sit around and do nothing about it. REVIEW IT! Spend at least 2 hours to review the questions you got wrong and ensure that you don’t get those kind of questions wrong ever again! Review the mock for quicker strategies, better shortcuts, clarifying concepts etc. Reviewing CLAT MOCKS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP YOU CAN TAKE TO CRACK CLAT.
So all in all, the key strategies to help you do better in clat is to read more, work on GK, take mocks and review them!
More on CLAT Coaching and the other sections soon!
Hope this helped you, All the best