CLAT covers mainly 5 areas:
- English including comprehension - 40 Marks
- GK/Current Affairs - 50 Marks
- Elementary Mathematics - 20 Marks
- Legal Aptitude- 45 Marks
- Logical Reasoning - 45 Marks
Now for the toughest part. How should one prepare or plan their studies??
Let us take the sections one by one and draw a map as to how one should prepare for CLAT.
English
English is a very important part and carries a 20% weightage. So one should prepare this part properly. You can buy books like Wrenn and Martin or Merriam Webster Vocabulary Builder to work on English. Lay more stress on grammar and Reading as comprehension is also a major part in the English portion.
Here, speed and accuracy are the two keywords. For mastering this, you need really need to practice as many sample papers as possible. This will not only benefit you in increasing your reading speed but will help you understand your shortcomings also.
GK/Current Affairs
Now this is the most important of all. GK/Current affairs carry a weightage of 25%. If you are not strong at this, you need not appear for CLAT!!
So, it is very important to be well verse with GK. You should try and spend at least an hour reading good dailies like Hindu or others. Competitive magazines like Competition Master or others may also help you a lot. Basically you need to know all the current happenings and should watch news daily.
Elementary Mathematics
Only practice can help you crack this. This section can really help you score well as it carries 20 marks (10%) and one with good aptitude need not worry about this section and should concentrate more on other topics. You can spend an hour daily on this section and you are through.
Coming to the preparation part, all the algebraic formulae’s should be on your lips. Even if somebody asks you what is a^2 + b^2 while you are asleep, you should be able to answer it. Try and increase your calculation speed by regular practice and work on commercial math topics like Profit and loss, discount, simple interest and area and volume. Again as I said earlier, practice is the only trick which can sail you through. Practice as many sample papers as you can to increase your speed and accuracy.
Legal Aptitude
This section carries a weightage of 45 marks and is a relatively new subject for the aspirants. Hence this part requires clear understanding and defined approach to solve questions. Here you may be asked questions on various Commissions like the Khalsa Commission, etc., Indian constitution, Indian judiciary system, Indian law system, articles pertaining to fundamental rights, fundamental duties, directive principal of state policies and some other articles pertaining to central and state government. Articles governing supreme court and high court may also be of some importance.
Basically, to crack this section, you need to know which article contains what and try to interpret them using case laws or read up intensively on them. Legal developments in India before and after independence can also be asked. Keep searching Google or other search engines for ‘Law’, ‘Law commissions’, etc and try to think logically on how decisions are made by courts while reading any legal news.
Logical Reasoning
This part is bit easy. It carries 45 Marks and practicing this part can easily sail you through. As is the case of elementary mathematics, for cracking this section, you need to practice as much you can. Go through as many sample papers possible and solve as many questions you can in minimum possible time. Again speed and accuracy will be the key to crack this section. This section mainly comprises of Assertion and Reason, Passage Reasoning and Statements and Contradiction. The LR section tests the ability of the candidate to understand paragraphs and logically connect them.
And now for my Final Words!! Practice as many papers as you can specially the previous year papers. I know you must be thinking that CLAT is just introduced and where from will I get previous year papers from. It would be advisable to purchase the last 16 years question papers of National Law School India University, Bangalore. These question papers come in a module and can be ordered from the University itself or you can buy some good book containing these papers. Try and solve paper at the same time when CLAT 2010 is conducted. This will help you tune into that mode and you will feel comfortable on the doom day.
