Law Entrance Exam – Preparation Woes

By Vaishnavi Shukla

Every law aspirant's current state of mind is to read everything possible and just secure a seat in a National Law University. I understand that you badly want to, but do you need to read everything possible under the sky to get that seat? No. In my last article, I made a “10 Things to Help You Plan a Career in Law” and those who follow what I write already know that I don’t speak for NLUs and CLAT alone. This article is a mix of top three entrance exams that a student might appear for based on his/ her preferences.

I’d begin my article by talking about CLAT because most of you are here for that alone.

Common-Law Admission Test (CLAT)

So, Common Law Admission Test as it is commonly called is your door to enter the National Law University, one of the most prestigious universities for imparting legal education and some other universities that take the CLAT score for admissions. To quote a survey “A total of 47, 750 students appeared for CLAT 2018 (UG). Looking at past data, one can safely assume the number of applicants to be around 51,000 as every year close to 3500–4000 students miss the exam for some reason or the other.”

To appear for CLAT, what you need is Dedication as much as you need brains. If you streamline what you’ve to study for the exam, then you wouldn’t consider it a woe but only Joy. Here are a few tips that can help you with your preparation:

• Stick to the Syllabus

Students who appear for CLAT mostly try to read everything even if it’s irrelevant because they want to be thorough. But, do you know how much unnecessary data you’ve allowed to enter your brain that the useful ones might just bounce over. Moreover, the Consortium this year has changed the exam pattern as under:

Subject/Section	No of Questions and marks
English including Comprehension	28-32 questions (28-32 marks)
Quantitative Techniques	39-35 questions (39-35 marks)
Logical Reasoning	13-17 questions (13-17 marks)
General Awareness	39-35 questions (39-35 marks)
Legal Aptitude	28-32 questions (28-32 marks)
Marking Scheme	1 mark for each correct attempt. 0.25 marks deducted for each wrong attempt

Also Read: 

CLAT new exam pattern and marking scheme

CLAT syllabus

CLAT preparation tips

• Arrange your Study Material

Once you’re aware of the syllabus, you can move ahead with gathering the required study material for preparation. The study materials mostly are:

1. UNIVERSAL’s guide
2. Past CLAT question papers
3. Question papers from other competitive exams
4. 10th and 12th Grade Maths workbooks
5. Newspapers
6. Books on Logical Reasoning
7. Books on Current affairs of the world from old to latest
8. A water bottle, because you must always be hydrated for your mind to function well.

• Bifurcate your Subjects as per Dates

If you bifurcate how you want to plan your studying days for each subject, you can cover a lot more without any interruption. For e.g.: First 10 days of the month can be for one subject, second ten for another and so on and so forth. Once you’ve covered all the subjects, you can start with revising the ones from the start and check for far you remember the topic. This is only a brushing up phase.

• Engage in Debates

When it comes to current affairs and logical reasoning, always engage in healthy discussions and debates. Because what you hear and say stays with you a lot longer than what you read. Any landmarks current issue or old issues dated back in history or any logical quizzes must always be discussed amongst friends and family members. In your free time, you can engage in these conversations with your friends and family over coffee and popcorn and learning becomes fun.

• Be Inquisitive

Be inquisitive of everything that you think might help in improving your knowledge. You learn only when you ask questions, you might not be updated with everything around the globe. But, your parents or someone from your circle might be, so always rely on the help and get your doubts cleared. If you come across a question and you don’t know how the solution for it was arrived at, then figure it out, don’t just blindly memorise your answer. Always remember that the University is way smarter than you are so no shortcut to success.

So, amidst this severe rat race of almost 50,000 applicants, only 2,300 students make the final cut. You see the numbers and I know you’ve started to panic. However, my suggestion is don’t panic, yes, it is your dream to be a part of NLU but not all dreams turn into reality and that’s fine. If you look at the other side of the grass, you will know that there are multiples other universities doing equally well and in a lot of cases, producing more jobs to the candidates who pass out than what NLU’s could. Not all that glitters is Gold. So, for others, I move on to the next exam you might appear for.

LSAT India

Another law examination which has the highest applicants is LSAT India. A number of law aspirants take this exam every year and the number of participating colleges and other colleges which consider the score are numerous. Students have a wider window to get a seat in leading colleges through this exam. The LSAT India syllabus is:

Topics	Number of Questions	Marks
Analytical Reasoning	23 questions	23 marks
1st Logical Reasoning	22 questions	22 marks
2nd Logical Reasoning	23 questions	23 marks
Reading Comprehension	24 questions	24 marks
Variable	23 questions	23 marks

Candidates can view LSAT India participating colleges here.

The preparation tips for this are the same as mentioned above. And these tips are not just for CLAT and LSAT but for any examination which any person appears for. Dedication and hard work lead you everywhere so stick to your fundamentals and you’ll find yourself doing things which you did not know you could and achieve so many different things in life.

Symbiosis Law Admission Test (SLAT)

Another top university which has innumerable applicants is Symbiosis International University (SIU) for admissions in Symbiosis Law School, Pune. So, the syllabus for SLAT is discussed below and symbiosis conducts its own examination and shortlists its candidates based on scores. Once shortlisted, students are called for SLAT which is then followed by an interview process which is not very easy to crack. From the Rafael deal to GST to Aadhar Card problems to Sec 377, you can be asked anything. This interview is something one should be worried about and well prepared. But, if you’re prepared well and worked hard for CLAT, you can easily attempt this interview, provided you are updated with everything an aspiring law graduate is expected to know.

Candidates can view SLAT syllabus here.

The three top law entrance exams which are attempted by students were discussed in this article. The list of the number of entrance exams is long and one can’t cover everything in one article. As per the student demand, more such articles on other law entrance exams shall be shared. Hope this helps.

About the Author:

I am Vaishnavi Shukla, a Corporate Attorney- India Head at Loyal Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, an exclusive franchisee of Empire group of hotels. I pursued law at the graduation level from Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies (BILS). Further, I did my LLM from Symbiosis Law School, Pune.