CLAT
Gateway to the five-year integrated BA LLB (Hons) programmes at 24 National Law Universities (NLUs), and to LLM programmes via its postgraduate paper. Many private law schools also admit on CLAT scores.
Eligibility
Candidates must have passed (or be appearing in) Class 12 with at least 45% marks for General/OBC/PwD/NRI categories and 40% for SC/ST. Any stream is accepted. There is no upper age limit and no cap on the number of attempts.
Age limit: No upper age limit
Exam pattern
Offline pen-and-paper test of 2 hours with 120 multiple-choice questions of 1 mark each; 0.25 marks are deducted per wrong answer. Five sections: English Language, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques. Every question is anchored to a comprehension passage, so reading speed is central. Legal Reasoning and Logical Reasoning together form roughly half the paper.
Syllabus at a glance
English comprehension through 450-word passages; current affairs with emphasis on legal and constitutional news; legal reasoning that tests application of stated principles to facts (no prior law knowledge assumed); logical and critical reasoning (arguments, assumptions, inferences); and Class-10-level mathematics presented mainly as data interpretation.
Upcoming dates
| Event | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| CLAT 2027 official notification | Mid-July 2026 | expected |
| Application window | 1 Aug – 31 Oct 2026 (as per recent cycles) | expected |
| CLAT 2027 exam | 6 Dec 2026 (first Sunday of December) | expected |
| Result and start of counselling | Mid-to-late Dec 2026 | expected |
Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.
Free prep material
Standard books
- Word Power Made Easy — Norman Lewis
- Universal's Guide to CLAT & LLB Entrance Examination — LexisNexis
- Legal Awareness and Legal Reasoning — A.P. Bhardwaj (Pearson)
- Analytical Reasoning — M.K. Pandey
- Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations — R.S. Aggarwal
- Manorama Yearbook
How toppers play it
- The paper is 120 passage-based questions in 120 minutes — build reading speed to roughly 350–400 words per minute with daily editorial reading, or you will simply run out of time.
- Prioritise Legal Reasoning and Logical Reasoning: together they carry about half the marks and reward practised passage dissection more than memorised law.
- With −0.25 negative marking, attempt a question only when you can eliminate at least two options; blind guessing across 15–20 questions can wipe out a section's gains.
- Do current affairs continuously, not in a final sprint — monthly compilations plus legal-news tracking cover the Current Affairs section far better than a yearbook read once.
- Take full-length mocks on paper with an OMR sheet (the exam is offline) and review every mock for time leakage per section.