The most popular subject of CLAT preparation is Legal Aptitude. The reason being, aspirants get to study and talk like lawyers (or atleast they think so). The subject is either taught by a lawyer or by someone who is pursuing law. There is no detail involved but the aspirants get to brush subjects like Contracts, Torts and Penal Code.
The subject is popular and rightly so, it carries 40 marks in the 200 marks paper. It accounts for 20% of the total marks of the paper. It is important to score above 32 in this paper if you are planning to pack your bags for a top tier NLU.
In case of a tie between two candidates in the exam, the marks of this section act as tie-breaker.
Analysis
This section can be further broken down into the following categories
- Legal GK
- Legal Maxims
- Legal Reasoning- facts and principles
- Legal Reasoning- assertion
There is no clear pattern in the distribution of the type of questions in the CLAT paper. Sometimes, the paper has a majority of legal reasoning and other times it a majority of legal gk and others.
How to prepare for Legal Aptitude
It is important that a systematic approach is taken to prepare for this subject. This section is the most important of all the subjects that the CLAT syllabus has. A good routine investing atleast 2 hours a day should be dedicated to the preparation of this subject.
- Modules: The modules are important because they provide a good grasp of the legal principle that the candidates need to stuyd. They only focus on the basic principles of a few statutes like Contracts so that the candidate solves the questions in the exam. The students should solely focus on the modules for the legal principles since it has the text in a precise form, no more and no less than required. There is no need to study bare acts for CLAT.
- Past papers of NLS and Nalsar: For this section, it is important to go through the past year papers of NLS and NALSAR. Before CLAT came into existence, the law schools used to conduct their own examinations. The legal questions are very relevant for the legal aptitude section.
- All India Mock Tests: Subscribe to a good all India mock test. It will give you an idea of where you stand amidst the competition.
- Legal News: There is a need to be aware of the legal news of the country. You cannot count on the newspapers to give you a consolidated legal news database. Follow websites like livelaw for legal news.
- Stick to the principle in the principle fact question.
- Maxims: Read maxims from the module book religiously. Make it a habit to learn ten maxims a day and then sleep on it. When you wake up, write the maxim with their meaning and use them in a sentence. This way you can retain the meaning of the maxim.
Books to refer
Universal’s CLAT Guide, LegalAwareness and LegalReasoning by A.P. Bhardwaj
Legal Aptitude: Common Law Admission Test (CLAT)(R. K. Gupta, Samiksha Gupta)
Read our one page primer on CLAT preparation.
First published on August 12, 2019.