New Exam Pattern of CLAT 2020: What to Expect and What to Do?
The new exam pattern of CLAT 2020 announced by the Consortium of NLUs yesterday has left us all surprised. The law aspirants are confused as there will be no clear precedent of what to expect and what not to expect in the paper.
This seems like a grim scenario to most people, some might even feel clueless as to what their next step should be. There is a simple way of dealing with this massive change. Follow the below-mentioned points
ALL IS WELL!!! Do not worry
Yes, we know it seems like a surprise and you have no idea what is to come in the paper next year but it is okay. It does not matter if the nomenclature of the subjects has changed. There are a few things which will never change about CLAT
- It is not the board exams, you don’t have to score 95%. In a competitive exam, all the advantages are yours too and all the disadvantages belong to the others as well.
- Good command over the English language will keep you in the front no matter what. CLAT aspirants will always find themselves ahead of others if their English is better than most.
- Good reasoning, the exam has retained and always will retain the reasoning syllabus. The idea to make CLAT a test which judges candidates on aptitude only will always rely heavily on a reasoning syllabus. There may be new forms of it like deductive or Quantitative but it will always be reasoning.
- Current Affairs, not just CLAT, the whole journey of law will seem a little easier if you pay the due effort towards current affairs. The committee’s press release clearly states that the new pattern will have Current Affairs and we are not surprised.
- Logical Reasoning, yes! Your old buddy logical reasoning which you have known from the very inception of CLAT. It’s still there, focus on your buddy and score well.
This is not the first time and it won’t be the last
CLAT has changed and surprised us more times than we can remember, sometimes with a warning and sometimes without. You are clearly more fortunate than the batch which faced all the Legal Aptitude questions to be reasoning based one year and no legal GK, image managing the time in that paper.
What we are saying is, CLAT is unpredictable, it has always been. There is no need to lose your sleep over this announcement. You should be happy, you have been informed of a change in November which will affect you in coming May.
The number of questions is changing too, it is not something to be happy or sad about. It doesn’t mean you will have ample time in the paper and it doesn’t mean questions will be extremely tough either.
Fun Fact: In 2008, the first version of CLAT had only 190 questions.
Read and re-read the press release
The press release by the Consortium of NLUs mentions some keywords which will help you shape your preparation as well as gives an idea of the new exam pattern of CLAT.
Yes, the document has a few loose ends on some topics but what are the things it tells us for sure.
- The number of questions has decreased to 120-150.
- The exam will be comprehension based.
- There will be subjects like Quantitative Techniques, English, Current Affairs, Deductive Reasoning and Logical Reasoning.
For the average CLAT aspirant, here’s what the above means
Quantitative Techniques: Quantitative techniques are used by people in a leadership role to consider all variables and make a decision objectively and efficiently.
(Sample Question)
Ten years ago, Shweta`s mother Seema was 4 times older than her daughter. After 10 years, the mother will be twice older than the daughter. What is the present age of Seema?
a) 40 years b) 50 years c) 30 years d) 45 years
[Question from here]
[Question from here]
Deductive Reasoning: In deductive reasoning questions you must draw conclusions based on only the information given in the question and not your own knowledge.
If the conclusion cannot be drawn from the information given, then the conclusion does not follow. There are several types of questions that evaluate deductive reasoning ability.
The most common types of deductive reasoning questions are syllogisms. A syllogism is a type of logical argument in which a pair of sentences serve as the rules/premises and a third sentence serves as the conclusion.
Example:
All crows are black. All black birds are loud. All crows are birds.
Statement: All crows are loud.
All crows are black. All black birds are loud. All crows are birds.
Statement: All crows are loud.
A: True
B: False
C: Insufficient information
B: False
C: Insufficient information
The correct answer is “true.”
An unreasonable amount of reasoning?
The subjects tell you that there will be a lot of reasoning involved in the preparation and in the examination if you want to make it to a good NLU. Till date, CLAT used to have almost 1/4th part reasoning but with the notification about the new exam pattern of CLAT, it seems that ratio will go up.
Also, with the increase in the marks of reasoning, we can expect a few surprises in the type of questions. It is therefore strongly advised that CLAT aspirants refer LSAT and GMAT reasoning papers to practice.
It will not only provide a wide variety of questions but the difficulty is also a notch up, this will help eliminate the risk of being surprised by any question that may come in CLAT 2020.
Aspirants can refer to GMAT guide and LSAT guide.
Clarification on the type of questions
We contacted the CLAT Consortium office Bangalore and they have asked the students to wait for 2-3 days after which a clarification on the notification with details on the new syllabus will follow.
Our advice
With the change in the air around CLAT aspirants, we have a piece of advice for the students.
Since comprehension and reasoning seems to have gained more importance ‘reading’ tough texts becomes crucial.
Reading the newspaper, making general knowledge notes from them, noting down new words, and making a summary in your own words will improve your grammar, vocab, COMPREHENSION, REASONING, and general knowledge.
If you don’t understand a thing, that’s good. Read it again. If you feel a bit of brain fog reading tough texts, trust me it’s good. It means your brain is working, your synapses are making new connections, and basically you are learning new things.
Read, read, read. In a good law course, whether UG, or PG you’ll have to read a lot. As a good lawyer too, you’ll have to read a lot.
Read things which pull you out of the comfort zone. Read the business section if that’s not your cup of tea. Read some key historical, political, and philosophical texts.
If you find then tough, that’s good!
All the best for the new exam pattern of CLAT.
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Aditya Anand
Contributing author
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