Law, Design & Other UG Entrance · Higher study

CLAT

Common Law Admission Test (UG)

Admission to five-year integrated LLB (Hons) programmes at 27 participating National Law Universities (NLUs) and many private law schools that accept CLAT scores.

Eligibility

Class 12 or equivalent with at least 45% marks (40% for SC/ST); candidates appearing in the March/April 2027 board exams can apply. There is no upper age limit and no cap on attempts.

Age limit: No upper age limit

Exam pattern

Offline pen-and-paper test of 2 hours (2:00 to 4:00 pm) with 120 multiple-choice questions, all based on reading passages. There are five sections: English Language (about 22-26 questions), Current Affairs including General Knowledge (28-32), Legal Reasoning (28-32), Logical Reasoning (22-26) and Quantitative Techniques (10-14). Each correct answer earns +1 and each wrong answer costs 0.25. Unanswered questions carry no penalty. Seats are allotted through centralised online counselling based on All India Rank and category.

Syllabus at a glance

No legal knowledge is assumed. The paper tests reading comprehension and vocabulary in context, current affairs from passages on national and international news, legal reasoning that applies a given principle to facts, critical and logical reasoning (arguments, assumptions, inferences), and Class 10-level maths through data interpretation sets.

Upcoming dates

Event	Date	Status
Online registration (closing)	3 Aug - 31 Oct 2026	confirmed
Admit card release	Late Nov 2026	expected
CLAT 2027 exam	6 Dec 2026 (Sunday), 2:00-4:00 pm	confirmed
Result	Mid-Dec 2026	expected
NLU counselling rounds	Late Dec 2026 - Feb 2027	expected

Expected dates follow the usual calendar; confirm on the official notification before planning.

Free prep material

Official

Consortium of NLUs: sample papers and past CLAT papers

Official question papers, answer keys and sample papers. These are the best guide to the passage-based format.

Study material

The Hindu

Daily editorials and national news. This is the standard reading for building comprehension speed and Current Affairs coverage.

Official

Press Information Bureau (PIB)

Government releases on schemes, appointments and summits, which are a frequent source for CLAT Current Affairs passages.

Study material

PRS Legislative Research

Free plain-language summaries of new bills and laws that are useful for legal reasoning passages built on recent legislation.

Study material

NCERT textbooks (Class 6-10 Maths)

Covers all the arithmetic needed for the Quantitative Techniques section: percentages, ratios, averages and profit and loss.

Study material

Drishti IAS current affairs

Free daily news analysis and monthly compilations for revising Current Affairs from about January to November of the exam year.

Standard books

Word Power Made Easy - Norman Lewis
Legal Awareness and Legal Reasoning - A.P. Bhardwaj (Pearson)
A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning - R.S. Aggarwal
Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations - R.S. Aggarwal
Universal's Guide to CLAT & LL.B. Entrance Examination - Universal/LexisNexis
Manorama Yearbook - Malayala Manorama

How toppers play it

The paper is passage-heavy, at roughly 120 questions in 120 minutes, so reading speed decides your score. Read one long editorial a day and time yourself.
In legal reasoning, apply only the principle given in the passage, even when it contradicts the real law. Most wrong answers come from using outside knowledge.
Since each wrong answer costs 0.25, guess only when you can eliminate two options. Skip the rest, especially lengthy Quantitative Techniques sets.
Build Current Affairs from about January to November of the exam year (for CLAT 2027 in December 2026, that means January-November 2026). Focus on why an event matters, because the questions test context rather than isolated facts.
Take at least 25-30 full-length mocks and analyse each one by section. Many toppers attempt Legal and English first, then Logical, then Quant, then GK.