CLAT 2015 on May 10: Last-Minute Preparation Tips

In the last two days before the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2015, there are a lot of things you can do to boost your confidence level.

CLAT is an all-India entrance examination, which will take place on May 10, 2015 for a total of 45,200 candidates who have registered for the exam this year.

It is conducted on rotation by 16 National Law Universities (NLUs) for admission to their undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes (LLB and LLM).

We know that a lot of you would be looking for methods to boost your preparation plan in the last few days before the exam. In this article, you can read all about how cracking the CLAT 2015 can be a cakewalk if you approach it with the right strategy.

On exam day

On the exam day, avoid taking any mock tests or do any last-minute preparations. Since the CLAT entrance exam is being held online for the first time, it is very important that you go through the instructions section carefully. Keep a tab of time while taking the paper and each section. Before you start answering the questions, ‘click’ on the question paper which gives you the entire paper in a scrollable format. This is critical for your time management strategy. In case of any technical glitch, do not panic. In fact, you would not lose time at all. The test authorities take care of the same. The system locks your time and there is no scope for loss of time.

In the last 2 days

During these final preparations days, just make sure you go through your notes and solve the problems again and again till you have mastered them. You should spend ample time looking at the analysis of the previously-attempted mock test papers. This would give you a fair idea of your weak areas. The practice should mostly be done in the online mode so that you develop comfort and stamina to take the final paper, especially during 3pm to 5 pm as the actual exam time. With the test format changed to online, students will need to look into the strategy on how to approach the questions as the practice is more aligned to a print-based paper. However, you can expect the structure of the test to remain the same.

How to tackle each section?

ENGLISH

Go through the passage quickly once to understand the main idea. Don not worry in case certain areas of the passage are beyond your understanding at first. Now read the questions and come back to the relevant portion of the passage in order to eliminate options. Grammar, spellings take very little time. Attempt them first. Para jumbles are very scoring. This must figure right on top of the sequence.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Do not waste too much time on questions that you are not sure about. Mark them for review and come back at a later time. Current affairs would span from April last year to March this year. At this point, however, there are two things you must keep in mind. For static GK, read through a standard GK book oriented towards CLAT.

MATHEMATICS

Mathematics questions are mostly based on the Class 9 and 10 syllabi. You should not have much problems sailing through this section. If there is any question that you do not understand, just skip it. Use of choices must be mastered to crack the questions faster.

LOGICAL REASONING

Analytical reasoning and quantitative ability questions are based on logic. Practice is the only key to crack this area. Also there is a reason why you’re given four options with every question. Make good use of them. Never make the mistake of attempting a question without reading the options. This may not be the best section to start with.

LEGAL APTITUDE

For legal reasoning, you should be able to grasp the key points. The application of these key points to facts also needs to be done with caution. Having a little legal knowledge helps too.

-- Gautam Puri

The author is vice chairman, CL Educate Ltd.

Source: HT Education