Candidates preparing to appear for CLAT 2025 can get here some valuable preparation tips from CLAT toppers from the past year. Read here to know more.
One who has mastered the art can only teach another to learn it in a better way. Who can tell better than CLAT toppers on how to ace the upcoming examination? Therefore, Shiksha collated preparation tips from past year toppers to share with the exam-appearing candidates. Read this article to know more CLAT preparation tips from toppers. CLAT 2025 is expected to be conducted on December 1, 2024. The Consortium announced the CLAT 2025 Exam Date, CLAT Registration Date 2025 and other important dates along with the CLAT Admission Notification 2025. Candidates must check the eligibility criteria for CLAT 2025 in detail before starting to prepare for the CLAT Exam.
Also Read: How to prepare for CLAT in 6 months: Tips, Tricks & Study Plan for CLAT 2025
CLAT Preparation Strategy shared by Toppers
It is essential to prepare in a strategic manner and, every exam topper ensures making an effective strategy for preparation. Let us know how CLAT toppers strategies their preparation.
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There is a 90% more chance of getting best college recommendations by sharing preferences.CLAT 2024 AIR 1, Jai Kumar Bohara, says that Good score in Board exams doesn't guarantee you a good college. I always had two priorities in mind. One was to prepare for CLAT, as it was in December, and it is more important than boards. And second priority was to maintain attendance in School. So, I had to go to school to maintain attendance but I didn’t study for boards apart from school. For the Board exams, I will start my preparation now. Because board marks will not fetch you a good college. It’s the entrance that will finally help you secure a good college.
Q: How many questions will be asked in CLAT 2025?
As per the CLAT exam pattern, there will be 120 questions in CLAT 2025. Candidates must note that it is not mandatory to solve all the questions. Candidates should solve only those questions which they can solve correctly as there is negative marking in CLAT. During the exam preparation, focus on the chapters from which majority of the questions are added. This will help them in achieving the sectional and overall cut offs are required. The consortium has released the marking scheme for CLAT 2025 Exam too. Aspirants can refer to the marking scheme for UG courses below:
For every correct answer, candidates are awarded one mark
For every wrong attempt, 0.25 marks are deducted from their total score
No marks are awarded or deducted for questions not left un-attempted
Q: What is the new CLAT 2025 Exam pattern?
The consortium of NLUs has not come up with changes in the exam pattern of CLAT 2025 as of now. However, the consortium brought changes in the exam pattern for CLAT 2024. The total number of questions was reduced from 150 to 120. However, no changes were made to CLAT 2024 syllabus or the number of sections in the CLAT 2024 exam. The 120 questions were divided into the existing five sections; English Language, Current Affairs Including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Techniques.
Q: What is the Exam Pattern of CLAT 2025?
The CLAT exam pattern for UG courses will include key features like type of questions, marking scheme, subjects, Section-wise weightage and other details. CLAT 2025 exam will be held in an offline I. e. Pen-Paper based test mode. The question paper of CLAT 2025 will be of 120 marks for a total of 120 multiple choices based question. Candidates will get two hours to attempt CLAT 2025 question paper. The subjects from which questions will be asked in the exam are English Current Affairs including GK, Legal Reasoning Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques. The question paper language will be English only. The subject-wise weightage for each section of CLAT UG paper will be as under:
English Language - 28-32 questions
Current Affairs including General Knowledge - 35-39 questions
Logical Reasoning - 28-32 questions
Legal Reasoning - 35-39 question
Quantitative Techniques - 13-17 questions
CLAT 2023 AIR 1, Abhinav Somani, shared that his main strategy was reading the newspaper and giving mocks. I read the newspapers religiously and made notes from them. The newspaper also helps you with your vocabulary, reading speed and comprehension ability. I also gave mocks regularly. I had a study group with 4 of my friends and we used to give mocks together. We started with 1 mock a week in January 2022, bumping it up to 5-6 per week by October 2022.
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CLAT 2023 AIR 4, Arnav Maheshwari says the key part of my prep was mock tests, giving and analysing mock tests regularly. It meticulously resulted in a good understanding of the exam and the resultant increase in marks, apart from this I kept up with current affairs and maintained a habit of reading through diverse content be it newspapers or novels.
CLAT 2023, AIR 13 Priyam Mitra says reading speed is important to complete the paper on time. This can be enhanced by reading novels, and also by reading newspapers. Do work on comprehension skills to perform well in passage-type questions.
Q: What changes have been made in CLAT exam pattern?
CLAT Consortium made few changes in CLAT 2024 exam pattern. Hence, the consortium did not bring any changes in exam pattern of CLAT 2025. As per the revised pattern, there were 120 questions for CLAT UG question paper. This means, 30 questions were reduced from CLAT UG 2025 question paper. Earlier, there were 150 questions in CLAT UG question paper. Moreover, the question paper were on similar lines as previous series i.e. passage-based objective-types questions of 1 mark each, and 0.25 marks to be deducted for incorrect attempts.
No change in the question paper of CLAT PG was made, and it was held as per the previous exam pattern i.e. 120 Objective Type Questions based on core law subjects.
In 2021, the Consortium had removed the descriptive section from the CLAT LL. M. exam pattern. All LL. M. candidates had to attempt 120 multiple-choice questions of 120 marks in a duration of two hours.
Q: Is there negative marking in CLAT PG?
The CLAT exam's marking scheme is based on the idea of negative grading. This indicates that 0.25 points is subtracted from the candidate's final score for each wrong response. One mark is given for each accurate response, and 0.25 marks is subtracted for each erroneous response. Hence, candidates have to be very carefull while marking their answers. Since, CLAT PG 2025 will have negative marking, students are advised to avoid guesswork and only answer the questions they are confident about.
Q: Has the CLAT 2025 seat intake changed?
The CLAT 2025 Seat Intake has not been changed, however, CLAT 2025 reservation criteria has been revised for Gandhinagar National Law University (GNLU), Silvassa. CLAT has 2522 seats for undergraduate courses. These seats have been divided as per the candidate's category.
As per the revised GNLU reservation criteria, the Domicile Reservation Category has been included for candidates residing in the Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Union territories. All those candidates who are looking forward to appearing for UG and PG courses must go to official website of CLAT 2025 portal and update the reservation category accordingly.
Q: Is there negative marking in CLAT Exam?
Yes, the CLAT exam has negative marking of -0.25 marks for wrong attempt. Unanswered questions have no negative marking. Candidates must select questions to solve very carefully in the CLAT exam. They should solve only those questions which they know they can solve accurately.
For every correct answer, candidates are awarded one mark
For every wrong attempt, 0.25 marks are deducted from their total score
No marks are awarded or deducted for questions not left un-attempted
| CLAT Marking Parameters | Marks Awarded |
|---|---|
| Correct answer | +1 marks |
| Incorrect answer | -0.25 marks |
| Un-attempted question | 0 marks |
Q: What type of GK is asked in CLAT?
The GK section carries a total 25 per cent weightage in the CLAT exam. Read below the best practices to follow to score well in GK section:
- You must be aware of the Daily Current Affairs in the area of the Economy, the Indian Constitution, Awards, sports, etc.
- Inculcate habit of reading the newspaper on a daily basis
- Static GK is also a part of the syllabus, but most of the questions are asked on the basis of the current affairs
- Try and read about various legal events and issues of the past
- Prepare your own notes. This will help you during your revision time
- Do not cram events. Try and understand why something happened and idea behind it
- Refer to as many Magazines, Newspapers, E-Newspapers, Blogs, etc., possible to be more aware of all the happenings worldwide
- Must watch news channels for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour per day
CLAT 2023 AIR 11, Sana Singh says that she approached the exam as an opportunity to hone her strengths and treated the GK and Quantitative Aptitude sections as score boosters. I wanted to pursue law long before that. This entailed taking weekly mocks and targeting an improvement in my weaker sections. In the 11th grade, I had stayed in touch with news updates and familiarised myself with the pattern of the exam by doing practice questions occasionally.
CLAT 2019 AIR 1, Saumya Singh shared that he started his preparation around two years before the exam date i.e. from class 11th onwards for consistent preparation. He focused on his strengths and weaknesses from all subjects on weekdays and revisions on weekends.
CLAT 2019 AIR 2, Harsh Tomar shares that he prepared a daily schedule for preparation in one year. He said the preparation plan was divided into two parts, wherein for the first six months the focus was allotted to the preparation of his weaker sections and, next six months for preparation of all sections. Throughout the preparation plan, he focused on weaknesses and strengths equally and, devoted sufficient time to learn tips and tricks in maths and practice questions from all subjects (at least five questions per subject).
CLAT 2019 AIR 5, Mouli Jain shared that she followed a promodoro technique wherein, she used to study for a stretch of 25-30 minutes and then take a break for a few minutes. This helped her improve productivity and concentration. Moreover, she prepared a subject-wise timetable to prepare on a daily basis. She studied at least three subjects a day including the subjects she's weak in. She focused on accuracy in the first six months and then, improved speed in her preparation plan. For accuracy, she clarified all concepts and theory and, for speed, she practised past years question papers of CLAT 2022 by setting time.
CLAT 2019 AIR 8, Shubh Mittal shares that in one year of CLAT preparation, his entire focus was on reading skills and speed by taking mock tests.
Also Read:
Books for Preparation
All the topper could achieve good marks in all subjects because they referred the best books for CLAT preparation. Here are books as referred by CLAT toppers for preparation
| Sections | Books referred by CLAT 2025 toppers |
|---|---|
| English | AIR 1 - Word Power Made Easy and 30 days to a Faster Vocabulary by Norman Lewis and, English is Easy by Chetananand Singh AIR 2 - Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis AIR 5 - Objective General English by SP Bakshi, and English is Easy by Chetananand Singh AIR 8 - Word Power Made Easy, English Grammar & Composition by Wren & Martin, Objective General English by SP Bakshi |
| Legal Aptitude | AIR 1 - Study material from coaching institute and, CLAT previous years papers AIR 2 - CLAT questions papers for Legal Reasoning section AIR 5 - Study material provided by coaching institute AIR 8 - CLAT Past years papers |
| GK including Current Affairs | AIR 1 - The Hindu newspaper, GKToday and StudyIQ, Competition in Focus magazine etc. AIR 2 - Lucent’s Objective General Knowledge and, GKToday & Affairs Cloud (websites) for Current Affairs AIR 5 - GKToday and AffairsCloud AIR 8 - GKToday (website), The Hindu |
| Logical Reasoning | AIR 1 - A Modern Approach to Logical Reasoning, for critical reasoning (Analytical Reasoning) by MK Pandey AIR 2 - Analytical Reasoning by MK Pandey and, A Modern Approach to Logical Reasoning by RS Aggarwal AIR 5 - A Modern Approach to Verbal Reasoning by RS Aggarwal AIR 8 - Analytical Reasoning by MK Pandey |
| Elementary Mathematics | AIR 1 - Study material by coaching institutes and, online prep materials AIR 2 - Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by RS Agarwal AIR 5 - Quantitative Aptitude by RS Aggarwal AIR 8 - Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by RS Agarwal |
Also Read:
Practising Mock Tests and Revision Plan
CLAT preparation is completed with the revision of entire syllabus for each section and mock test practice. Know here how CLAT toppers revised for their exam:
| CLAT 2023 Topper | Revision and Mock Practice Strategy |
|---|---|
| CLAT Topper AIR 1 | He revised every weekend for the topics that he prepared during the week. He did not take any break from practising questions all through his preparation plan to avoid losing touch of concepts. |
| CLAT Topper AIR 2 | First, clarified all subjects and focused on weakness and, then practised previous years question papers. Practised at least 5 questions every day for each subject from day 1 to learn tips and tricks of solving questions quickly. In the revision time, he advised to practised at least 50 mock tests for overall preparation. |
| CLAT Topper AIR 5 | She developed her own study plan wherein she practised her strong and weak subjects equally. To improve the speed of solving questions, she practised mock tests in the last four months rigorously. To ensure time management, she set the timer while taking mock tests. |
| CLAT Topper AIR 8 | He shared that in order to achieve the desired speed of solving 200 questions within 120 minutes, practice rigorously overall 120 mock tests. Also, he ensured revision on a daily so that his subject strengths become best. |
The preparation tips shared above by CLAT toppers will be helpful to strategise and, focus on key improvement areas. All the toppers advised that to prepare better for CLAT 2025 one should:
- Schedule their preparation properly
- Solve mock tests papers based on the subjects regularly
- Revise thoroughly daily
- Be prepared and don't lose confidence for your performance for the upcoming examination.
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 19 hours ago
With 62.25 marks in the CLAT exam, your rank will likely vary depending on the difficulty level of the exam that year and the overall performance of other candidates. However, based on previous trends, a score of around 62.25 can typically place you in the range of 3000-5000 in the CLAT rankings.
As
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
The mode of National Law School of India University course admissions is online. Admission to various courses is based on merit and entrance exam scores. The accepted entrance exams are CLAT and others. Candidates applying through CLAT must first register for the CLAT exam. Then appear for the CLAT
R
Beginner-Level 4
Answered 2 days ago
Shiksha college predictor link
You can use the link to predict your college based on your rank.
You can try for top 5 law colleges in WB.
Also you can explore about -
NIRF law ranking
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Road map for next 5 years of Law
Scholar-Level 16
Answered 2 days ago
Yes, you can get into the LLB programme offered at Ajeenkya DY Patil University without appearing for the CLAT exam. The university accepts students on the basis of their entrance exam (ACET for Law) conducted by the university. Those who clear then entrance exam are then called for personal intervi
U
Beginner-Level 4
Answered 4 days ago
Yes, students seeking admission to the BCom LLB course offered by Vel Tech can do so without appearing for CLAT. As per the official website, the university also offers direct admissions. However, students must note that students with a minimum of 45% in aggregate and above in CLAT are given prefere
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 4 days ago
Yes, candidates seeking admission to the Vel Tech BA LLB (H) programme can do so without appearing for CLAT. As per the official website, the university also offers direct admissions. However, students must note that students with a minimum of 45% in aggregate and above in CLAT are given prefrence o
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 4 days ago
With a CLAT score of 8314 AIR and an OBC rank of 1188, one can consider going for any of the Delhi government law colleges located at Delhi, which accept CLAT scores, including Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, and Law Centre II-those are all part of the University of Delhi.
All these factors may su
U
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
a private law college which accepts CLAT scores in a rank range of 21,000; options include
- Alliance University (Bangalore),
- Sharda University (Greater Noida),
- UPES (Dehradun), and
- GD Goenka University (Gurgaon).
Most of these colleges have cutoffs that are not as rigid as the top National Law Universit
U
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
This will be a daunting task getting admission into one of the Kolkata national law schools with an all India rank of 40811 in CLAT 2025 and SC rank of 2800.
But then to balance it with UPES in Dehradun or Sharda or even with Symbiosis Law School Pune-all accepting CLAT scores but are slightly relax
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
CLAT and other law entrance exams typically consist of multiple-choice questions that test a candidate's knowledge, reasoning, and analytical skills. Here's a breakdown of the types of questions usually asked:
English Language
1. *Comprehension Passages*: Candidates are given a passage to read, follo
A
Contributor-Level 7
What rank should I expect with 62.25 marks in CLAT? Can I get admission to IP University Delhi?