CLAT 2020 Syllabus and Subject-Wise Analysis [Videos] By CLAT Consortium

CLAT 2020 Exam and Registration

Introduction

CLAT 2020 Syllabus: English Language

• Passages intended to test ability to understand and analyse text that is at 12th standard level.
• May be from various topics, including technical and scientific topics, but you will not need any prior knowledge of any specialised areas to understand or analyse the passages.
• Usually a passage will have one point, and arguments or statements that support or counter the idea presented in the main point – try and discern the main point, and see what arguments or statements are presented in support of, or to counter, the main point.
• Once you have figured out the main point of the passage, a simple way to extract usable information from the passage is to focus on : Who, What, Why, When, and Where – you do not have to memorise these points, but keeping them in mind when reading the passage will ensure you have a good grasp over its details, without having to memorise them.
• Pay attention to paragraph structure – usually, a change of paragraph is accompanied by a change in speaker, or a change in the view point being presented. This will help you find differences in viewpoint, or counter arguments more easily when a question asks you to do so. Similarly for words and phrases like ‘however’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘conversely’, etc.
• Vocabulary questions are broadly of two types – one type will simply ask you for the meaning of a particular word or phrase – another type will ask you for the meaning of a word or phrase ‘in the context of the passage’ – in either case, it is helpful to read one or two lines before and after the line in which the word or phrase being asked about appears, so that you are better able to understand the context in which the word is used. Often, you would be able to determine the meaning of the word or phrase by understanding the context in which it is used and eliminating options that do not make sense in that context – even if you did not know the meaning of that word or phrase beforehand.
• Once you have read the passage in this manner, approach the questions – you do not need to remember all the details of the passage before approaching the questions – but if you have a good idea of the main point of the passage and its overall structure, you should be able to find specific details the question asks you for relatively quickly and easily.
• Pay very close attention to the wording of each question – while the questions follow a handful of ‘types’ (we have described them already in the consolidated video), the question-setters will sometimes make slight alterations to the way they are worded, so as to check that you are reading them closely, and can determine the impact of such changes (e.g., Difference in a question which asks ‘Which of the following is the author likely to agree with’ would imply that there is only one option in line with the author’s arguments, while ‘Which of the following is the author likely to most strongly agree with’ would imply that there is more than one option that supports the author’s arguments, but one option in particular provides the strongest support to the author’s arguments; ALSO watch out for double negatives!)
• Make sure you read all the options in a question before choosing the correct answer – even if you are confident that you have found the correct answer in the first or second option you read – sometimes there may be subtle differences in wording in the options, and an option that you think is correct at first sight may not be as good as a later option.

CLAT 2020 Syllabus: Current Affairs and General Knowledge

• Questions intended to test depth of understanding of issues and events of significance,rather than mere fact- or trivia-based superficial knowledge.
• While the focus is on more recent and current events, questions may test you on historical information related to such events and significance, in order to better gauge your understanding of the causes of such current events.
• Questions may also relate to matters associated with the events mentioned in the passage – for a passage about a natural calamity for example, you may face questions not only about that natural calamity, but similar events in other parts of the world.
• Make sure you read the entire passage before you attempt the questions – while the answers to some questions may seem apparent to you, you would be able to pick up valuable clues about the answers to other questions by ensuring you read the entire passage first.
• Don’t worry about whether you will remember all the elements of the passage when you come to the questions – the idea is not to test your ability to memorise the passage and answer questions that test your recollection – but do make sure you have a good idea of the overall theme or point of focus of the passage, as this may help jog your memory about any related information you may have read or come across in your preparations.
• In line with the overall theme of the UG CLAT 2020, the focus is on comprehension, and your ability to understand and decode the information set out in the passage. While you may not be asked vocabulary questions in this section of the paper, you may be asked the meaning of certain statements made in the passage, insofar as they relate to information associated with such statements – for example, a passage relating to cyclones may ask you what the difference is between a cyclone, typhoon, and hurricane.
• As with all the other sections of the UG CLAT 2020, make sure you pay close attention to the wording of the questions – the question setters may be examining your ability to read and follow text closely, and so, may frame questions in a negative manner (e.g., Which of the following is not an example of x?) or may use a double negative as well (e.g., Instead of asking which of the following is an efficient way to do x, the question may be framed as: Which of the following is not an inefficient way to do x.)

CLAT 2020 Syllabus: Legal Reasoning

• One of the biggest differences in the pattern of the Legal Reasoning section of the UG CLAT 2020 over previous years is that the principle and facts will not be supplied separately to you – as such, the first thing you should do is read through the passage carefully, and identify the principles set out in it.
• Once you have done this, read through each question carefully to see if it relates to the same facts as are set out in the passage, or a separate set of facts, or, perhaps, the facts set out in the passage with some alterations.
• Now that you have both, the principle and the facts identified, try and break down the principle into smaller parts – for example, a principle may say “A person who operates a drone at a height in excess of 500 feet in a public place is guilty of nuisance.” In such a case, you should be able to identify the three requirements set out in the principle for nuisance – firstly, that the person in question should have been operating the drone, secondly, that that person should have operated the drone at a height in excess of 500 feet, and thirdly, that this should have occurred in a public place. Only if all three parts of this principle are satisfied by the facts can you assume that a person is guilty of nuisance.
• When breaking a principle down into its parts, be careful to pay close attention to what we call ‘OR’ and ‘AND’ conditions – the example we saw above had ‘AND’ conditions, that is, all three parts must be satisfied for a person to be held guilty of nuisance. On the other hand, if the principle were worded as follows: “A person who operates a drone at a height in excess of 500 feet or in a public place is guilty of nuisance.”, you would have one ‘AND’ condition, and one ‘OR’ condition. In this situation, for a person to be held guilty of nuisance, the following conditions must be satisfied: they should have been operating the drone, AND, such operation should be at a height in excess of 500 feet OR in a public place. These small changes would result in a big change in the outcome – in the first case, a person operating a drone at a height of 300 feet in a public place would not have been guilty of nuisance, but in the second case, that person would have been guilty of nuisance.
• As you can see from the above, small changes to the wording of a principle can make a big difference to the outcome of a question. Similarly, small tweaks to the facts can also have a big impact on the outcome of a question. Suppose you are working on a question that has either of the principles above, and the facts state: “ Rahul takes his drone to a public market, where he meets his friend Sheela. Sheela asks Rahul if she can fly the drone for a little while, and he agrees. Sheela then takes the drone and flies it to a height of 600 feet above the market, so she can get a panoramic shot of the market. Is Rahul guilty of nuisance?” While your first instinct in this case may be to say ‘Yes!’, slow down – the question asks if Rahul is guilty of nuisance, but the facts tells us that Sheela was flying, that is, operating the drone – therefore, Rahul cannot be held guilty of nuisance. It would, of course, have been a different matter altogether if the question asked whether Sheela was guilty of nuisance.
• A passage may have more than one principle, and more than one set of incidents – in some instances, the questions may ask you to apply the same principle to different fact situations, whereas in others, each question may relate to a different principle and fact situation – so make sure you pay close attention to each question, determine which principle and facts have been called into question, and only then attempt the answer.
• Finally, bear in mind that the question setters do not expect that you are a lawyer before you even go to law school! As such, it is important you do not try to apply any pre-existing knowledge of laws that you may have to the questions in this section – very often, the question setters will tweak a principle of law here and there, with the result that the outcome may be very different from what you may know about some actual law in the ‘real’ world. While you would be expected to have some basic knowledge of law, this is only at the level of a responsible citizen and member of our society – you should be careful not to let any external knowledge or information you may have creep into your analysis of the principles and facts supplied to you in the question.

CLAT 2020 Syllabus: Logical Reasoning

• As you can well imagine, arguments are a very important part of studying law. Arguments are usually sets of facts or pieces of evidence (called ‘premises’) which support a ‘conclusion’. These premises and conclusions together form arguments, and arguments are at the heart of the Logical Reasoning section of the UG CLAT 2020.
• Given this, the first thing you should do when attempting a question in this section of the UG CLAT 2020 is to carefully identify the various premises and conclusions in the passage. Once you have done this, you will be better prepared to take on the questions.
• Now that you have identified the premises and conclusions in the passage, try and determine if there is an overall theme, point, or conclusion to the passage. This is important, not only because many questions will ask you to identify these, but also because they will give you a better understanding of the overall tone, theme, and parts of the passage. With this information at hand, you should be able to easily answer questions that ask you to identify the main theme or conclusion of the passage, as well as questions that ask you to identify arguments in support of, or against, the author’s arguments.
• Some passages may include more than one point of view, or more than one set of arguments, some of which may weaken or contradict each other. Identifying and separating these is very important, so that you know not only what the main conclusion is, but whether the passage has a main conclusion at all, or if it only presents different points of view.
• As always, it is very important you read each question carefully before trying to determine what the correct answer is. A question may ask which option weakens the argument in the passage – in which case it is safe to assume that only one of the options weakens the argument in the passage; or it may ask which option most weakens the argument in the passage – in which case more than one option may weaken the argument in the passage, and it is your job to identify which weakens the argument the most.
• Some questions may ask you to assume certain things as true, even when you may otherwise know them to be false, or even if they contradict the information in the passage. In such situations, it is important that you follow the instructions in the question strictly – remember, the question setters are examining your ability to read and comprehend information and instructions in this section, and not your pre-existing knowledge. The question setters are also interested in understanding how quickly you can adapt to changes in facts, premises, and conclusions, and so, it is important that you approach each question without carrying any baggage from the previous questions.
• When a question asks you what a statement from the passage implies, you are required to do two things – look at the statement and see what it says explicitly, and also try and determine what it may mean, without stating explicitly. To do this, you will have to apply all the skills that this section requires of you – not only will you have to comprehend the statement and its parts, you will also have to extend the argument to the various possibilities set out in the options. In such a case, identifying the overall theme or conclusion of the passage, which we talked about a little earlier, is very helpful – the overall theme or principle often provides you a simple summary of the arguments in the passage that can help you extend the statement to the different possibilities set out in the options.

CLAT 2020 Syllabus: Quantitative Techniques

• Since the Quantitative Techniques section of the UG CLAT 2020 differs from previous years’ papers in that it requires you to read a passage or analyse a set of graphical information before attempting a question, it is very important that you go through the passage provided, or the graphical information supplied to you, and list out (or underline) the information that is provided to you, and the information that you may need to answer the questions. As a simple example, a passage may provide the various speeds of trains, and the distance between two stations – in this case you know that you will probably need to calculate the time such trains may take to cover such distances.
• Again, since the Quantitative Techniques section of the UG CLAT 2020 follows the general trend of changes in the CLAT towards a more comprehension-based format, it is important that you read the passages and questions very carefully, so as to ensure you have understood the information supplied, and what exactly the question is asking of you. Bear in mind that the question setters would tend to move away from formulae-based questions towards more logic-based questions – this means that they are not only looking at your ability to conduct simple mathematical calculations, they are also looking for your ability to analyse the passages and graphical information.
• Quite often, a later question in any set of questions in the Quantitative Techniques section of the UG CLAT 2020 will require you to use some information that you may have calculated or derived in the course of answering a previous question. Since this is the case, it is important that you keep your rough notes and calculations neat and handy, so that you can quickly refer to such information when needed. Since the UG CLAT 2020 is, among other things, a test of your ability to answer questions efficiently, it would be a terrible waste of time if you had to hunt through your rough notes and calculations to find some vital piece of information.
• In some instances, it is very helpful to keep a set of rough notes where you list out the main people, objects, or artifacts that the question relates to (such as trains, boats, vessels, etc.), and keep listing out relevant information relating to each of them as you go along – for example, in a question about time, speed, and distance, it is very useful to have information such as the length of a train, its speed, and what time it leaves a station, readily available. Not only will this save you time, it will also help avoid any mistakes in going back and forth across your notes to find some information that you had derived some time back.

CLAT 2020 Syllabus: Please visit the official CLAT Website for more Preparation Strategies and Sample Questions.