Cracking CLAT 2017
Nishant Priyadarshi
It is all about speed, accuracy, and practice
CLAT 2017 is an online exam and has a total of 200 multiple choice questions, each of one mark, and the duration of the exam is two hours. The subject areas covered are English (including comprehension), General Knowledge/ Current Affairs, Elementary Mathematics, Legal Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. Wrong answers carry a negative score of 0.25.
| Test Area | Questions | Marks |
|
English including comprehension |
40 |
40 |
|
GK and Current Affairs |
50 |
50 |
|
Elementary Mathematics |
20 |
20 |
|
Legal Aptitude |
50 |
50 |
|
Logical Reasoning |
40 |
40 |
| Total |
200 |
200 |
In case of equal marks being obtained by two or more students, the student having higher marks in legal aptitude is given a better rank. In case there is still a tie, higher age and then draw of lots (if required) are used as criteria to give higher rank.
How to maximize your score in CLAT 2017:
The key to getting a good score in CLAT 2017 is having sound subject knowledge and a good strategy to attempt the paper.
Remember that CLAT is a speed test. 200 questions in 120 minutes is no mean task. A student will need around 115-120 marks to get admission in top NLUs. With an accuracy of 80-90%, you will need to attempt about 150-170 questions to get this score. So you really need to build your speed and allocate time properly between different sections. Remember that all questions carry equal marks and the English and General Knowledge questions are easiest to solve and least time consuming. You should try to solve them in about 20 and 15 minutes respectively. Give around 15-20 minutes to Math and you should be left with about 70 minutes for the remaining two sections. You may give 30 minutes to Logical Reasoning and about 35-40 minutes to Legal Aptitude.
Of all the sections, Legal Aptitude may be the most tricky and time consuming. Students also tend to spend lot of time on this section as scores in this section will be used as the tie-breaker, if required. However, my advice to students always has been to maximize their score from other sections and only give remaining time to this section. This should help you improve your score and give you a better rank.
Here is a suggested split of the time that students should ideally spend of each section and the number of questions that they should spend. However, please bear in mind that this may change depending on the difficulty level of each section and should not be taken as sacrosanct.
|
Test Area |
Questions/Marks |
Time to be given |
Expected Attempts |
Expected Score |
|
English including comprehension |
40 |
20 – 22 mts |
38 – 40 |
30 – 32 |
|
GK and Current Affairs |
50 |
12 – 15 mts |
35 – 40 |
26 – 30 |
|
Elementary Mathematics |
20 |
15 – 20 mts |
16 – 18 |
13 – 15 |
|
Legal Aptitude |
50 |
35 – 40 mts |
35 – 40 |
27 – 32 |
|
Logical Reasoning |
40 |
30 – 35 mts |
30 – 35 |
24 – 28 |
|
Total |
200 |
120 |
154 – 173 |
120 – 137 |
Quick Do’s and Don’ts for the exam:
Do’s
- Do each question on its own merit (remember, each question carries equal mark)
- Have an exit time. If you are not able to get a question within a minute, LEAVE!
- Stick to the time limits decided for each section
Don’ts
- Try a new strategy in the exam
- Spend time on a question you can’t understand
- Get stuck on a question
Wish you all the best from all of us at VistaMind!
