As an aspiring law student, if you are keen to pursue a career in law, let us tell you at the outset that it is really great that you have decided to make some legal footprints on the planet! An age-old profession, Law has gone through exhaustive changes over the course of time. However, before embarking on a journey to high seas of law and be a catalytic tide for societal change, you need to crack one of the most reputed examinations of the land, viz. CLAT or Common Law Admission Test.
Presented below are 4 helpful tips that can guide you to stem the tide and sail through the turbulent waters of CLAT!
Tip 1: Clearly Understand The Test Pattern
The first helpful tip is to clearly understand and realize what CLAT is all about. What is the test pattern, what are the sections, and are you aware of such sections before or is this something new for you?
To get an answer to these questions, you will have to go through the previous question papers and get a clear idea of what the test is all about. You may invest a few days in the process of skimming through the questions to get a better grip. Since there are slight changes in every CLAT paper, you should go through at least 3-year papers to a grip of the pattern.
One suggestion is – take a scratch paper and divide it into columns (the tech-savvy ones can use spreadsheets) and put different types of questions under different heads, viz., English, Maths, General Awareness, Legal Aptitude, Logical Reasoning. At the end, it gives a clear picture of the type of questions and what are the skills required to answer them.
This activity is to make sure that you are really up for the journey through the legal seas!
Tip 2: Honestly Choose between Self-Study & Coaching
The second helpful tip is to properly weigh all your options related to the test. It also depends on how much time is left for preparation before the exam. Some may decide early and some may take time to start it. Thus, it depends on when the test is and when you have started your preparation.
One option is that, if you are motivated enough and have the drive to wake up early or burn the midnight oil, then you can go for self-study and prepare a strict routine for yourself. You can collect all the required books and also take help from online resources, and start with your preparation.
On the other hand, if you feel you need more guidance as you are not able to figure out the examination pattern and level of difficulty of the questions, and on the whole, what to study to get through, then join any institute that offers good coaching for the test.
Tip 3: Smartly Manage Your Strengths & Weakness
The next helpful tip is to clearly identify your strengths and weaknesses and come out with a smart preparation plan around it. If you are from a Math background, Numerical ability and logical reasoning sections may look good to you. On the contrary, if you are from Humanities, General Awareness or English may be your best sections.
The trick here is to bank on your strengths and try to maximize your score there. However, don’t neglect your weak areas as the overall score matters a lot. There can be many unfavorable scenarios during your preparation. You tend to lose hope on how things are unfolding. Constantly remember that on the test there is one core area, which is your strength.
Nevertheless, there is also a catch here. Do not overdo your favorite section to the tune that you miss out on others. Desist from developing emotional attachment with sections and questions on the test.
Tip 4: Bank on Practice Tests
The last helpful tip is the most important part of your whole preparation process. As it is often said, practice makes you perfect, it comes handy to ease out all the stressful situations on the test day.
So, while taking practice tests, you should focus on time management. Check for yourself, what is the average time allocated per question and how much time are you taking per question. Generally speaking, time management and selection of questions go hand-in-hand. As you may be aware, in every test, the questions fall under three levels of difficulty – easy, moderate, and difficult. As a CLAT test taker too, you should have the ability to identify all the easy and moderate level questions and solve them at the first go. And then, based on the available time, you can spread it across the difficult questions.
