CLAT: Application (Started), Exam Dates (Out), Eligibility, Syllabus, Preparation Tips [Updated]

Introduction

The Consortium of National Law Universities, consisting of representative universities, conducts the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) examination in a traditional pen-and-paper format in the offline mode. The exam administration is rotated across the participating NLUs based on the seniority of each institution. This is an all-India Entrance Examination for law aspirants that is used by the National Law Schools/Universities (NLUs) and many other law colleges and universities in India to select students for their undergraduate and graduate law programmes.

The CLAT exam scores are also utilised by PSUs to find qualified individuals for positions like Law Officer, Legal Advisor, and Legal Executive. Such companies announce their final recruits based on the top 50 PG-CLAT ranks. All PSUs issue specific notifications for interested and eligible candidates. CLAT 2023 will be used for all admissions to the 5-year integrated Ll. B and Ll.M. integrated programme beginning in the 2023–2024 Academic Year.

Exam Dates Out for CLAT 2023

Registration for CLAT 2023 began on August 8, 2022. The fees for the CLAT examination was Rs 4000 for general/OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO/OCI candidates and Rs. 3500 for the SC/ST/BPL applicants. The last date for accepting fresh applications (for both U.G. and P.G. programmes) was November 13, 2022, which was further extended to November 18, 2022.

Candidates were given three practice tests to become acclimated to the format and nature of the questions they would encounter in CLAT 2023. The Consortium of NLUs released the first sample question set in September 2022 and the second set of sample questions was released on October 14, 2022. Recently, the Consortium uploaded the third sample set of questions on its website.

CLAT 2023 is scheduled to be held on Sunday, December 18, 2022 (2.00-4.00 P.M.) and National Law University Odisha (NLUO), Cuttack, will conduct CLAT 2023. It will be conducted solely in offline (Pen and Paper) mode in the MCQ (multiple-choice question) format. There is only ONE sitting of the exam for the entire academic year but a candidate can appear for the examination, every successive year without any limit on the number of attempts.

Eligibility for CLAT 2023

There is no upper age limit to appear for the CLAT examination. Individuals who took the June 2022 CLAT but were not accepted to their preferred school may retake the exam in 2023 provided they re-enroll for the test. The eligibility criteria for CLAT vary with the courses, which are as follows:

Under-Graduate Courses:

Candidates applying for the 5-year integrated Ll.B degree need to meet the following pre-requisites for CLAT 2023:

• They must have qualified 10+2 level of examination (or equivalent) with a minimum of 45% aggregate score for the General/OBC/Specially-abled Persons (SAP) category candidates and 40% for the ST/SC candidates from a recognised board.
• Students taking their XII examinations in May 2023 can also apply for CLAT 2023.

Post-Graduate Courses:

CLAT 2023 applicants for Ll.M courses must meet the following requirements:

• A minimum of 50% in the Ll.B. or equivalent law exam for candidates belonging to the General/OBC/SAP categories and 45% for those in the SC/ST categories.
• Candidates yet to appear in the qualifying degree examination are also eligible to apply and appear in the exam, provided they are able to produce the required degree with the aforementioned pre-requisite percentage at the time of admission.

Syllabus for CLAT 2023

There have been some official changes made to the UG-CLAT paper pattern and syllabus for 2023. These include:

• From 200 questions, the number has been reduced to 150, each carrying 1 mark.
• The new CLAT Syllabus includes questions that cover a wider range of topics. Three to four passage MCQs will follow each passage.

It is essential to remember that the CLAT syllabus for undergraduate and postgraduate courses is entirely different. Studying for CLAT requires a thorough familiarity with both the Undergraduate and Post-graduate Syllabi.

CLAT 2023 Under-Graduate Syllabus

The UG-CLAT 2023 tests the general aptitude, comprehension, and reasoning capabilities of the candidates. Overall, it is designed to assess a candidate’s skills essential for a legal education rather than their prior legal knowledge. One must keep themselves up-to-date with current affairs in order to perform well in the written examination and subsequent interviews.

In the UG-CLAT 2023, there shall be negative marking and the penalty for an incorrect answer is a deduction of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. The syllabus covers five broad subjects, namely:

• Current Affairs (including static G.K.): This section covers a wide range of topics such as national affairs, historical facts about India, government schemes, science and technology developments, sports, art and culture, awards and honours, international political, economic, and cultural affairs.
• Logical Reasoning: This portion has questions based on number series, syllogism, blood relations, seating arrangement, clocks and calendars, assertion and reasoning, coding-decoding, statement and inference, etc. The candidates will be required to read passages of about 450 words each and answer related questions. The passages can be based on legal and public policy concerns, moral and philosophical considerations, as well as contemporary socio-legal issues. To do well in this section, aspirants must have a comprehensive understanding of key legal and moral issues and the ability to apply general concepts or propositions to the fact patterns provided.
• Legal Reasoning: In the legal reasoning section of the exam, candidates will be given hypothetical situations and asked to infer the relevant law from the given facts and arguments.
• English Language and Comprehension: This section includes grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, synonyms and antonyms, as well as identifying common errors.
• Quantitative Aptitude: This section comprises several 10^th standard mathematical topics such as the fundamentals of algebra, concepts of ratio and proportion, mensuration, and estimation statistics like area, perimeter, etc. The questions will require one to apply mathematical procedures to the data provided in the texts, graphs, or other representations on which related statements shall be based.

CLAT 2023 Post-Graduate Syllabus

The PG-CLAT 2023 will consist of 120 MCQ-type questions carrying one mark each. Every incorrect answer will result in a 0.25 mark deduction. The paper will cover subject-specific topics covered in the undergraduate degree such as constitutional law, labour Law and industrial law jurisprudence, torts, administrative law, tax law, contract law, family law, property law, criminal law, company law, public international law, and environmental law.

The will be one objective section that will test the candidates on the following parameters:

• Critical thinking ability to comprehend and infer relevant knowledge from the given passage.
• Legal awareness and understanding of issues and facts pertinent to the provided material and the judicial or legislative source from which it was taken.
• Practical ability to apply undergraduate knowledge about the topics of law discussed in the passage.

Exam Centres

The CLAT 2023 will be conducted across various centres thought the country. When completing the application, the candidates can select up to three separate test centres. The NLUs will conduct CLAT 2023 in the following centres:

Agra	Gandhinagar	Kolkata	Ahmedabad
Allahabad	Gangtok	Kota	Amritsar
Amrawati (Maharashtra)	Hooghly	Kurnool	Tirunelveli
Aurangabad	Ghaziabad	Kurukshetra	Barrackpore
Bangalore	Bhopal	Hisar	Nagpur
Barasat	Gorakhpur	Lucknow	Madurai
Bhubaneswar	Calicut	Jaipur	Patiala
Bilaspur	Hyderabad	Imphal	Varanashi
Chandigarh	Jalandhar	Patna	Coimbatore
Chennai	Jammu	Pune	Durg
Cuttack	Hubli / Dharwad	Vellore	Gwalior
Dehradun	Jamshedpur	Raipur	Shimla
Ernakulum	Jodhpur	Ranchi	Tiruchirappalli
Faridabad	Kanpur	Shillong	Srinagar
Gurugram	Greater Noida /Noida	Mohali	Mumbai
Haldwani	Guwahati	Muzaffarpur	Mysore
Indore	Jabalpur	New Delhi	Navi Mumbai
Rajkot	Thane	Rajahmundry	Salem
Siliguri	Thiruvananthapuram	Puducherry	Kanyakumari
Sonepat	Surat	Meerut	Mangalore
Vadodara	Vijayawada	Chittor/Tirupathi	Kottayam
Visakhapatnam

Preparation Tips

CLAT 2023 has a vast scope of syllabus, which can make a prospective law student find CLAT more challenging than other entrance tests. Considering this, it is important to select reliable study material for preparation and have a practical strategy that will ensure a good rank in the entrance test.

Read Also – Tips to Law Entrance Exam Preparation

CLAT 2023 Undergraduate-Graduate Preparation Tips

As a general thumb rule, the aspirants must improve their reading comprehension skills, keep up with current events by reading reputable newspapers and magazines, and improve their speed. Following are certain tips that can help you prepare for the upcoming CLAT 2023 examination:

1. Subject-Specific Preparation: Focus individually on the five portions included in CLAT 2023 exam, namely, Reading Comprehension and Grammar, Logical Reasoning, Legal Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, and General Knowledge and Current Affairs. Towards this:

• Read newspapers daily.
• Brush up important areas of class 10^th mathematics and statistical estimation section.
• Read editorials and analysis of important judgments and develop critical insight into important national and international socio-legal issues.
• Strengthen knowledge of the Indian judicial and legislative process and be thorough with the landmark judgements and their basic interpretation and social significance.
• Practice reading comprehension, syllogism, number series, grammatical error correction, and other important topics from the reasoning and language section of the past papers on a daily basis.

2. Time Management Is Crucial: Attempt mock tests in order to attempt maximum questions accurately within the stipulated time limit of 120 minutes. Focus on accuracy and speed as negative marking coupled with limited time is a combination that needs to be handled with care.

3. Consistency Is The Key: Prepare a realistic timetable and make sure to follow it diligently. Study from credible sources and prepare personal notes so that revision becomes an easy task near the exams.

4. Remain Updated: In order to target a good CLAT score, being aware of the previous year’s cut-off is crucial. This will allow candidates to streamline their preparation to meet the predicted cut-off, which is often roughly the same as or slightly higher or lower than last year’s qualifying score.

5. Follow the Latest Pattern: As per the updated pattern of CLAT in 2020, Legal Reasoning and General Awareness have been given a weightage of around 35-40 questions in each section, followed by Logical Reasoning and English with 28-30 questions each. Hence, it is imperative that all CLAT 2023 candidates are familiar with the exam format and pattern to prepare accordingly.

CLAT 2023 Post-Graduate Preparation Tips

The following are some things to remember for the PG-CLAT in 2023:

1. Study U.G. syllabus: Thoroughly revise the undergraduate syllabus and analyse the previous years' papers to identify crucial focus areas.

2. Remain up-to-date: Important constitutional and legislative provisions should be reviewed, with particular emphasis on those that may have been mentioned in recent court decisions.

3. Strengthen Legal and Critical Analysis: Revisit landmark judgments and ponder over the implications of various issues pertaining to them. Ensure you are familiar with the history of the case law and amendments pertaining to such sections so you can better comprehend the difficulties involved.

4. Prioritise Subjects: Focus on areas that carry the maximum weightage like Constitutional Law, International Law, and Jurisprudence.

5. Consistent Practice and Time Management: Mock tests are necessary to improve one’s ability to solve problems within the time limit. Reading newspaper is also important as it enhances reading speed and helps the candidates in solving comprehension-based essay-type MCQs.

CLAT 2022 Cut Off

The Consortium released CLAT 2022 results on June 24, 2022. Generally, for the UG-CLAT, a score of 100-105 marks would be required to get admission to one of the top three or four NLUs. In the UG-CLAT 2022, Rishabh Shivani obtained 121 marks and topped the examination. On the other hand, Samriddhi Mishra topped the PG-CLAT 2022 with 94 marks.

Conclusion

The Consortium will begin CLAT 2023 Counseling in January 2023. Candidates with questions about CLAT 2023 should contact clat@consortiumofnlus.ac.in or dial 08047162020.

References

• https://www.shiksha.com/law/articles/ crack-clat-with-tips-
  from-past-years-toppers- blogId-12514
• https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/clat- 2023/ug-syllabus.html
• https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in/clat- 2023/pg-syllabus.html
• https://www.toprankers.com/ clat-cut-off
• https://www.toprankers.com/ clat-result
• https://law.careers360.com/ articles/clat-result
• https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in /clat-2023/