CLAT 2015: Student Reaction

CLAT 2015 is finally over. CLAT exam was conducted across 42 test cities in India today, May 10, 2015. CLAT 2015 was the eighth Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National University, Lucknow was the conducting authority of the exam.

CLAT is conducted on a rotational basis by the 16 NLUs. Know the participating institutes for CLAT 2015.

CLAT 2015 exam was divided into five broad sections – General Knowledge and Current Affairs, Elementary Mathematics (Numerical Ability), English including Comprehension, Logical Reasoning and Legal Aptitude.

Total number of questions asked in CLAT 2015 was 200 and aspirants had to attempt these multiple choice questions in two hours duration.

Most of the experts Shiksha.com spoke to shared that the test pattern for CLAT 2015 was little different this year.

View CLAT 2015 exam analysis by experts here.

CLAT exam went completely online this year and candidates shared that they had to report to the exam centres two hours before the exam started. After they entered the centre, their fingerprints were recorded wherein their thumb impressions were taken four times. After this, aspirants had to undergo technical training on how to use the systems allotted to them.

Majority of the students we contacted revealed that the CLAT exam this year was very difficult and they were not able to attempt all the questions. Aspirants also shared that the test pattern for CLAT 2015 was a little different from previous years’ question papers, especially for the Legal Aptitude section.

CLAT 2015: How was the exam?

Kanha Shekhar Mishra said, “The paper was very difficult. I was preparing for CLAT since two years but still found it to be very difficult. I attempted 125 questions”. Adding to this, Unnayan SK Chandra said, “Legal section was time consuming but I managed to attempt 170 questions”.

Nitish Choudhary further went on to say that “The paper was very difficult and I felt that there was 70% change in the exam pattern”.

Talking about how his exam went, Abhishek Pande said that CLAT exam was very difficult and Piyush Goyal also supported him by saying that the exam was “not up to the mark, I just attempt 110 questions”.

However, some students differed in their opinion from the rest like Karan Vijay who managed to attempt 165 questions and felt that the difficulty level of CLAT was average.

Arpit Bajpai shared that his paper went “awesome and I am expecting a really good score”.

CLAT 2015: Difficulty level

Nitish Choudhary said, “The Maths section was the most difficult, however, in the legal section some questions were the same as previous years. The paper pattern was a little different for the GK and Current Affairs section as well because there were no questions from static GK”.

Kanha Shekhar Mishra was quoted as saying, “The GK section we cannot rate it as too difficult or too easy because that depends on how much we have studied. But Legal section of CLAT 2015 was very difficult”. He further said, “In the reasoning section no question was easy but I would say that the difficulty level of questions asked in this section was average. English was good. I am not too good in Maths as I am from humanities background so I attempted only one question in the Maths section because there is negative marking and there is no point in taking risk”.

Rating the difficulty level of CLAT 2015 exam, Unnayan SK Chandra said that, “Legal section was the most difficult followed by Logical Reasoning section and then GK along with English section and finally Maths”.

Abhishek Pande shared that the Logical Reasoning, Legal Aptitude and GK section were very difficult. He further said, “Contract, Tort, Maths, SCR act and others was very tough, I am sure the cut-offs will be down from last year”.

Talking about the difficulty level of different sections of CLAT 2015, Upal Das said, “English was easy, Maths and GK were too tough. Logical Reasoning was ok and Legal Aptitude was also good”.

“Logical Reasoning was easy and Maths section was lengthy. English was hard because of online test whereas Legal Aptitude section was medium in difficulty level and GK section was hard”, shared Piyush Goyal.

Karan Vijay said, “Legal section was very easy, Logical was ok, English section was moderate, Maths was moderate in terms of difficulty level and GK was extremely tough”.

Alok Kumar Jha shared that, “My paper went well. Maths was difficult, English was easy, Logical Reasoning was difficult, Legal aptitude was easy and GK section was also easy”.

Arpit Bajpai said that on the whole his paper went really good and talking about the difficulty level of each section in CLAT he said, “In the English section I took time in attempting the reading comprehension questions. Overall Legal section was easy, Logical Reasoning was the easiest part, Maths was not so tough and GK was average”.

CLAT 2015 Exam Pattern

Abhishek Pande shared that all the students were surprised to see the test pattern and questions asked in CLAT exam this year.

Elaborating on the same, Alok Kumar Jha said, “The pattern was a little different. In the Legal Aptitude section, principle based questions were less and other type of questions were more. Earlier, most of the questions asked in this section were principle based but this year only 20 principle based questions were asked in that section. Apart from this, in the GK and Current Affairs section, very less questions were asked from static GK, most questions in this section were from current affairs. Also, current affairs questions were a little unexpected because latest happenings of April and May were also asked”.

Kanha Shekhar Mishra revealed, “I had solved all the CLAT question papers right from 2008 to 2014 but test pattern for legal section was very different. About 90% of the questions were from principles and facts. In previous years’ question papers, 10-40 questions used to be from principle and facts and the remaining questions from serial number 40-50 were from legal knowledge. But this year the questions from question number 1-30 were from legal knowledge and only 15 questions were from principles and facts”.

CLAT 2015: Experience of giving Computer Based Exam

Kanha Shekhar Mishra whose exam centre was Bhagwati Intitute of Techology and Science in Ghaziabad shared that, “Some kids in my exam hall faced problem as their computer switched off and when they intimated the authorities they had to troubleshoot (for the problem) and then later they were given extra time”. He further said, “It was an uncomfortable experience giving online exam for CLAT. I have given other law entrance exams online like KIIT’s exam and their arrangements were better. In my exam hall, most of the students faced problem with their computers. The mouse of my system also wasn’t working properly, I had to click 2-3 times to select an option and this led to wastage of time”.

Piyush Goyal found it difficult to give the CLAT exam online. He was quoted as saying, “Firstly, it is difficult attempting online test, it was very time consuming. Especially in English section, for me it was difficult to attempt the comprehension questions. Apart from that, solving questions in Logical Reasoning section was also very difficult on the computer”.

However, Unnayan SK Chandra’s opinion differed in this regard as he said that, “Giving computer based test was easier than pen paper exam”. Supporting his claim was Alok Kumar Jha who said that giving online exam is better than offline tests.

On the other hand Karan Vijay shared that the entire experience of CLAT going online was bad for him and it started with the registration process. Elaborating on the same, he said, “It took two hours for a deemed institute like RMLNLU to "register us” when IP did it in just 10 minutes” He also felt that, “Computer based exam took a lot of time. OMR exam would have been better”.