Hello, friends. My name is Rishabh Bhatnagar, and, I secured an AIR of 69 in CLAT 2015. In this article, I will tell you how can do the same too!
First things, first: understand and believe that CLAT is not a tough paper at all and doesn’t need hundreds of nights of burning the midnight oil. If prepped for smartly and efficiently, three-four months is easily enough time to crack CLAT and secure a seat at one of the premier law schools of India. This is how you do it-
Make a study plan allotting a week each to each subject. Let’s talk about the individual subjects first before moving on to more general things to keep in mind.
General Knowledge
- Watch GK and vocabulary videos on YouTube on channels like Unacademy and other CLAT related channels. Time yourself and go through GK Today, JagranJosh and CloudAffairs compendiums for current affairs. However, filter these current affairs based on the frequency of occurrences in mocks and level of difficulty.
- After the compendiums, log on to this website called Lead the Competition, they have monthly GK tables. Do them but you don’t have to do all the questions. Just get a hang of it.You can also refer to LAWKey for CLAT for the same purpose. But regardless of where you read it from, make sure to filter what kind of questions you need to focus on.Within History, concentrate more on Modern History only.
- If you want you can even neglect Ancient and Mediaeval.
- Towards the end, when you’re revising, go back to your Jagran Josh or GKToday compendiums and only read the highlighted part this time.
- For static GK, if you have guidebooks like Universal or Lexis Nexis, just time yourself and solve MCQs based on certain topics like History, Geography, Science, Economics, etc. You can also find online quizzes like this one. Allot, say, one hour for 100 questions. Don’t worry too much about wrong answers as long as you’re checking the right answer to it. Do not attempt questions you don’t know the answer for unless you’re about 85% sure.
- Go to Jagran Josh or GK Today and find their monthly compendiums. Download them and go through them in under 1 hour (maximum, 1 hour and 15 minutes). Only highlight important and relevant news. Additionally, you can visit the Lead the Competition website, they have short compilations of monthly important news. If needed, download the GK sections (can only download legal aptitude and vocabulary questions) from your mocks and do them again. Whatever you do, make sure you time yourself.
- Practicing papers would have given you a fair idea of what kinds of questions are asked in CLAT. Only basic, superficial knowledge of current affairs is required. Don’t go in too much depth of it. That’s all for GK. You don’t need to read newspapers.
- Legal Aptitude – For legal, take Lexis Nexis or Universal’s Guide to CLAT and attempt 100 or 50 questions in one sitting. Allot 1 hour for 100 questions and 30 minutes for 50. Slowly try to reduce this time, since you’ll need much extra time for other sections like Mathematics and Logical Reasoning.
- English – Don’t overdo Vocabulary and Critical Reasoning. Finish Mathematics, Constitution, Legal GK, logical Reasoning ASAP. Focus on Reading Comprehension questions and learn to solve them faster by practicing more and more questions. A simple tip is to figure out first line (which would be introductory in nature) and last line (which would sound like a conclusion) and then figure out the rest of the lines. Punctuation marks also help more often than not. Comprehension based questions can be practiced a few times but don’t worry about them too much.
- Mathematics – Never, ever, ever leave the Math section. A lot of people do and that is exactly why you shouldn’t. Those 20 marks will make or break your game. Rely on R. S. Aggarwal’s Guide Book for Competition Exams if you have a lot of time on your hands. Else, practicing Math sections from past year papers should be enough.
- Logical Reasoning- Past year papers should suffice but in case you’re not running short on time, you can practice questions from R.S. Aggarwal but only those topics where you find yourself often making a mistake.
At the end of mocks (or when only a couple of them are left), get a print out of vocabulary, GK, Legal Aptitude (not reasoning), and mathematics questions and keep doing it and time yourself. For GK miscellaneous topics, solve all questions of Universal and Lexis Nexis guide in the Geography, History, Economics, etc. categories and not the ‘miscellaneous category’ of the book. Never rely on anyone’s answer key.
The sad truth about CLAT is that you can never rely on one particular answer key but will infact have to rely on answers that you see getting repeated quite often. Hence, practice is the only correct key.
Should I take one-month long crash courses?
One month crash courses are a sham. Only a handful make it to NLUs with a month-long course. Now, the decision of taking a drop and enrolling in the 1-year course depends on one thing. Take a drop only if you’re sure you will be able to clear CLAT now that you have more time to do so. In deciding this you have to be honest and unbiased.
How to crack CLAT in a shorter amount of time?
CLAT doesn’t require more than 2-3 months preparation. When you don’t have a lot of time, focus more on subjects that require technical knowledge– Legal Aptitude, Mathematics, and Static GK. Start solving past year papers for CLAT, AILET, pre-2008 NLSIU, and pre-2008 NALSAR. If not the entire paper, then at least do the legal and the static GK part. Since you’re a bit close to the exam, focus more on solving questions and not learning concepts in their entirety. If you get questions incorrect, check the answer and move on. CLAT is mostly to do with how many questions you’ve practiced. The questions that are more often repeated across materials are the ones that usually come in papers other than CLAT itself. Time yourself while practicing or reading. Don’t attempt questions unless you’re atleast almost sure. When you realize you consistently score poorly in certain topics or you aren’t sure of certain topics, only then read the concepts from books. You can also watch YouTube videos for Maths lessons, Vocab, Current Affairs. Make sure you know how to filter questions relevant to CLAT. For vocabulary, if you have mock tests or MCQs, time yourself and attempt questions for word meaning, synonyms, antonyms, etc. No time to revisit theories. Understand how to do Reading Comprehension questions online by watching YouTube videos.
Where do I get the study material from?
These are the sources I referred to– English: Word Power Made Easy, YouTube, online blogs like LawKey for CLAT, JagranJosh, etc. There are also sections for vocabulary in LexisNexis and Universal Guide books for CLAT. Mathematics: Competitive Examinations by R.S.Aggarwal, online blogs (like Lawkey for CLAT), YouTube for understanding theories Legal Aptitude: Lexis Nexis, Universal’s Guide, later I solved MCQs from wherever I could find on the internet GK: PratiyogitaDarpan, JagranJosh compendiums, GK Today Compendiums, Affairs Cloud, Lead the Competition. Logical: M.K.Pandey, online blogs and YouTube.
Hope this helped. All the best!
Rishabh Bhatnagar
