The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national level entrance exam for admissions to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law programmes offered by 22 National Law Universities around the country. It is conducted for shortlisting candidates seeking admission in undergraduate as well as postgraduate law programmes. The exam is primarily conducted for admissions to the NLUs in India, however, many private colleges and universities also accept CLAT scores for admission to law courses. The only NLU not accepting CLAT scores is the National Law University, Delhi (NLUD) which conducts its own entrance exam for shortlisting candidates.
Eligibility for the Undergraduate Programme
- There will be no upper age limit for UG Programme in CLAT 2022.
- As regards minimum percentage of marks in the qualifying examination (i.e., 10+2 or an equivalent examination), the candidates must have secured:
- Forty five percent (45%) marks or its equivalent grade in case of candidates belonging to General / OBC / PWD / NRI / PIO / OCI categories
- Forty Percent (40%) marks or equivalent in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST categories.
- Candidates who are appearing in the qualifying examination in March/April, 2022 are also eligible to appear in CLAT 2022 examination. However, they shall be required to produce an evidence of their passing the qualifying examination at the time of admission, failing which they shall lose their right to be considered for admission.
- The result of the qualifying examination (i.e., 10+2) shall be submitted by the candidate at the time of admission failing which the candidate shall be ineligible for admission to the Course.
- In case of equal marks, the break of tie shall be by the following procedure and order as under:
- Higher marks in the component / section on legal aptitude in the CLAT 2022 exam;
- Higher age;
- Computerised draw of lots.
UG Syllabus & Guide
Introduction and Overview
The UG-CLAT 2022 would focus on evaluating the comprehension and reasoning skills and abilities of candidates. Overall, it is designed to be a test of aptitude and skills that are necessary for a legal education rather than prior knowledge, though prior knowledge occasionally may be useful to respond to questions in the Current Affairs section.
The UG-CLAT 2022 shall be a 2-hour test, with 150 multiple-choice questions carrying 1 mark each. There shall be negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. These questions would be divided across the following 5 subjects:
- English Language
- Current Affairs, including General Knowledge
- Legal Reasoning
- Logical Reasoning
- Quantitative Techniques
English Language
In this section of the UG-CLAT 2022, you will be provided passages of about 450 words each. These passages will be derived from contemporary or historically significant fiction and non-fiction writing, and would be of a standard that a 12th standard student may be able to read in about 5-7 minutes.
Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate your comprehension and language skills, including your abilities to:
- Read and comprehend the main point discussed in the passage, as well as any arguments and viewpoints discussed or set out in the passage;
- Draw inferences and conclusions based on the passage;
- Summarise the passage;
- Compare and contrast the different arguments or viewpoints set out in the passage; and
- Understand the meaning of various words and phrases used in the passage.
Current Affairs Including General Knowledge
In this section, you will be provided passages of up to 450 words each. The passages will be derived from news, journalistic sources and other non-fiction writing. The questions may include an examination of legal information or knowledge discussed in or related to the passage, but would not require any additional knowledge of the law beyond the passage.
Each passage will be followed by a series of questions that will require you to demonstrate your awareness of various aspects of current affairs and general knowledge, including:
- Contemporary events of significance from India and the world;
- Arts and culture;
- International affairs; and
- Historical events of continuing significance.
Legal Reasoning
In this section, you will be expected to read passages of around 450 words each. The passages may relate to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters, public policy questions or moral philosophical enquiries. You will not require any prior knowledge of law. You will benefit from a general awareness of contemporary legal and moral issues to better apply general principles or propositions to the given fact scenarios.
Each passage would be followed by a series of questions that will require you to:
- Identify and infer the rules and principles set out in the passage;
- Apply such rules and principles to various fact situations; and
- Understand how changes to the rules or principles may alter their application to various fact situations.
Logical Reasoning
The Logical Reasoning section of the UG-CLAT 2022 will include a series of short passages of about 300 words each. Each passage will be followed by one or more questions that will require you to:
- Recognize an argument, its premises and conclusions;
- Read and identify the arguments set out in the passage;
- Critically analyse patterns of reasoning, and assess how conclusions may depend on particular premises or evidence;
- Infer what follows from the passage and apply these inferences to new situations;
- Draw relationships and analogies, identify contradictions and equivalence, and assess the effectiveness of arguments.
Quantitative Techniques
The Quantitative Techniques section of the UG-CLAT 2022 will include short sets of facts or propositions, graphs, or other textual, pictorial or diagrammatic representations of numerical information, followed by a series of questions. You will be required to derive information from such passages, graphs, or other representations, and apply mathematical operations on such information.
The questions will require you to:
- Derive, infer, and manipulate numerical information set out in such passages, graphs, or other representations; and
- Apply various 10th standard mathematical operations on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation.
Preparing for the UG-CLAT 2022
The Consortium plans to publish various preparatory materials for the UG-CLAT 2022, including:
- Guides to the question paper and sample questions;
- Model question papers; and
- Instructional materials and exercises for each of the subjects that the UG-CLAT 2022 comprises.
How to approach questions & Preparation Strategies
How to approach questions in the English Language section of the UG CLAT
Passages intended to test ability to understand and analyse text that is at 12th standard level.
- May be from various topics, including technical and scientific topics, but you will not need any prior knowledge of any specialised areas to understand or analyse the passages.
- Usually a passage will have one point, and arguments or statements that support or counter the idea presented in the main point – try and discern the main point, and see what arguments or statements are presented in support of, or to counter, the main point.
- Once you have figured out the main point of the passage, a simple way to extract usable information from the passage is to focus on : Who, What, Why, When, and Where – you do not have to memorise these points, but keeping them in mind when reading the passage will ensure you have a good grasp over its details, without having to memorise them.
- Pay attention to paragraph structure – usually, a change of paragraph is accompanied by a change in speaker, or a change in the view point being presented. This will help you find differences in viewpoint, or counter arguments more easily when a question asks you to do so. Similarly for words and phrases like ‘however’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘conversely’, etc.
- Vocabulary questions are broadly of two types – one type will simply ask you for the meaning of a particular word or phrase – another type will ask you for the meaning of a word or phrase ‘in the context of the passage’ – in either case, it is helpful to read one or two lines before and after the line in which the word or phrase being asked about appears, so that you are better able to understand the context in which the word is used. Often, you would be able to determine the meaning of the word or phrase by understanding the context in which it is used and eliminating options that do not make sense in that context – even if you did not know the meaning of that word or phrase beforehand.
- Once you have read the passage in this manner, approach the questions – you do not need to remember all the details of the passage before approaching the questions – but if you have a good idea of the main point of the passage and its overall structure, you should be able to find specific details the question asks you for relatively quickly and easily.
- Pay very close attention to the wording of each question – while the questions follow a handful of ‘types’ (we have described them already in the consolidated video), the question-setters will sometimes make slight alterations to the way they are worded, so as to check that you are reading them closely, and can determine the impact of such changes (e.g., Difference in a question which asks ‘Which of the following is the author likely to agree with’ would imply that there is only one option in line with the author’s arguments, while ‘Which of the following is the author likely to most strongly agree with’ would imply that there is more than one option that supports the author’s arguments, but one option in particular provides the strongest support to the author’s arguments; ALSO watch out for double negatives!)
- Make sure you read all the options in a question before choosing the correct answer – even if you are confident that you have found the correct answer in the first or second option you read – sometimes there may be subtle differences in wording in the options, and an option that you think is correct at first sight may not be as good as a later option.
Preparation Strategies
- Try and read some of the same sources that the question setters are using to create questions – you do not have to read the entire book, if the source is a book, but keeping track of sources like newspapers and magazines would be very helpful. In particular, read the opinion and editorial sections of newspapers, as many passages are derived from such sources. (This has the added advantage that it will help your preparations for the Current Affairs and General Knowledge section of the paper as well).
- Having a study group or someone – even one or two people – with whom you can discuss various passages would be very helpful. Once you and your study partner read the same passage, try and form questions and ask them of each other – such as, what is the main point of the author in the passage, what can be inferred from the passage, what arguments would weaken or strengthen the author’s arguments in the passage.
- Practice grammar from any good 10th standard grammar textbook. Some classics, like Wren and Martin’s English Grammar and Composition, are still very very good resources for preparation.
- It may not be possible to develop your vocabulary too much in the days left before the exam – but make sure you stop every time you come across a word you don’t understand – whether in the newspaper, in a textbook, or even while watching a show on the ‘net – and find out its meaning from a dictionary. Some good, free dictionaries are available on the Internet – you can even download free dictionary apps so that you always have a dictionary handy on your phone.
- Make sure you go through all the practice materials and sample papers provided by the CLAT consortium – these are closest in style and level of difficulty to what you may see in the eventual UG CLAT 2022 paper; make sure you go through all the rationales provided, so that you understand why a particular option is right or wrong.
How to approach questions in the Current Affairs including General Knowledge section of the UG CLAT
- Questions intended to test depth of understanding of issues and events of significance ,rather than mere fact- or trivia-based superficial knowledge.
- While the focus is on more recent and current events, questions may test you on historical information related to such events and significance, in order to better gauge your understanding of the causes of such current events.
- Questions may also relate to matters associated with the events mentioned in the passage – for a passage about a natural calamity for example, you may face questions not only about that natural calamity, but similar events in other parts of the world.
- Make sure you read the entire passage before you attempt the questions – while the answers to some questions may seem apparent to you, you would be able to pick up valuable clues about the answers to other questions by ensuring you read the entire passage first.
- Don’t worry about whether you will remember all the elements of the passage when you come to the questions – the idea is not to test your ability to memorise the passage and answer questions that test your recollection – but do make sure you have a good idea of the overall theme or point of focus of the passage, as this may help jog your memory about any related information you may have read or come across in your preparations.
- In line with the overall theme of the UG CLAT 2022, the focus is on comprehension, and your ability to understand and decode the information set out in the passage. While you may not be asked vocabulary questions in this section of the paper, you may be asked the meaning of certain statements made in the passage, insofar as they relate to information associated with such statements – for example, a passage relating to cyclones may ask you what the difference is between a cyclone, typhoon, and hurricane.
- As with all the other sections of the UG CLAT 2022, make sure you pay close attention to the wording of the questions – the question setters may be examining your ability to read and follow text closely, and so, may frame questions in a negative manner (e.g., Which of the following is not an example of x?) or may use a double negative as well (e.g., Instead of asking which of the following is an efficient way to do x, the question may be framed as: Which of the following is not an inefficient way to do x.)
Preparation Strategies/ FAQ
- The best way to prepare for this section of the UG CLAT 2022 is to have a long-term habit of reading a good set of newspapers and periodicals; in particular, it would help to read the editorial and opinion sections of newspapers and periodicals, as these often provide historical, associated, and ancillary information related to the main subject discussed in the piece. Now that you have an idea of what sources the question setters typically refer to from the introductory video, try and read through similar sources on a regular basis.
- If you have not developed a long-term habit of reading newspapers and periodicals, all is not lost! Now that many good sources of news and information are also available online, you can also visit their websites, and go through their archive of editorial and opinion pieces. In this way, you can try and catch up for some lost time.
- It may not be possible for you to read all the information covered in this section of the UG CLAT 2022 in the time you have. A good way to try and address this is to form a small group of people with whom you can discuss the topics and areas that are covered in this section. That way, you can not only take the advantage of the fact that other people may have covered the topics you have not been able to, you will also be able to dive into greater depth by questioning each other about each topic, so as to ensure you know more about that topic than you may otherwise have been able to.
- We do not encourage nor discourage the use of fact compendiums to assist in your preparation for this section. If you find these useful, please feel free to use them – but make sure you do not fall into the trap of meaninglessly memorising long lists of facts without understanding their wider context, and how they relate to other information.
How to approach questions in the Legal Reasoning section of the UG CLAT
One of the biggest differences in the pattern of the Legal Reasoning section of the UG CLAT 2022 over previous years is that the principle and facts will not be supplied separately to you – as such, the first thing you should do is read through the passage carefully, and identify the principles set out in it.
- Once you have done this, read through each question carefully to see if it relates to the same facts as are set out in the passage, or a separate set of facts, or, perhaps, the facts set out in the passage with some alterations.
- Now that you have both, the principle and the facts identified, try and break down the principle into smaller parts – for example, a principle may say “A person who operates a drone at a height in excess of 500 feet in a public place is guilty of nuisance.” In such a case, you should be able to identify the three requirements set out in the principle for nuisance – firstly, that the person in question should have been operating the drone, secondly, that that person should have operated the drone at a height in excess of 500 feet, and thirdly, that this should have occurred in a public place. Only if all three parts of this principle are satisfied by the facts can you assume that a person is guilty of nuisance.
- When breaking a principle down into its parts, be careful to pay close attention to what we call ‘OR’ and ‘AND’ conditions – the example we saw above had ‘AND’ conditions, that is, all three parts must be satisfied for a person to be held guilty of nuisance. On the other hand, if the principle were worded as follows: “A person who operates a drone at a height in excess of 500 feet or in a public place is guilty of nuisance.”, you would have one ‘AND’ condition, and one ‘OR’ condition. In this situation, for a person to be held guilty of nuisance, the following conditions must be satisfied: they should have been operating the drone, AND, such operation should be at a height in excess of 500 feet OR in a public place. These small changes would result in a big change in the outcome – in the first case, a person operating a drone at a height of 300 feet in a public place would not have been guilty of nuisance, but in the second case, that person would have been guilty of nuisance.
- As you can see from the above, small changes to the wording of a principle can make a big difference to the outcome of a question. Similarly, small tweaks to the facts can also have a big impact on the outcome of a question. Suppose you are working on a question that has either of the principles above, and the facts state: “ Rahul takes his drone to a public market, where he meets his friend Sheela. Sheela asks Rahul if she can fly the drone for a little while, and he agrees. Sheela then takes the drone and flies it to a height of 600 feet above the market, so she can get a panoramic shot of the market. Is Rahul guilty of nuisance?” While your first instinct in this case may be to say ‘Yes!’, slow down – the question asks if Rahul is guilty of nuisance, but the facts tells us that Sheela was flying, that is, operating the drone – therefore, Rahul cannot be held guilty of nuisance. It would, of course, have been a different matter altogether if the question asked whether Sheela was guilty of nuisance.
- A passage may have more than one principle, and more than one set of incidents – in some instances, the questions may ask you to apply the same principle to different fact situations, whereas in others, each question may relate to a different principle and fact situation – so make sure you pay close attention to each question, determine which principle and facts have been called into question, and only then attempt the answer.
- Finally, bear in mind that the question setters do not expect that you are a lawyer before you even go to law school! As such, it is important you do not try to apply any pre-existing knowledge of laws that you may have to the questions in this section – very often, the question setters will tweak a principle of law here and there, with the result that the outcome may be very different from what you may know about some actual law in the ‘real’ world. While you would be expected to have some basic knowledge of law, this is only at the level of a responsible citizen and member of our society – you should be careful not to let any external knowledge or information you may have creep into your analysis of the principles and facts supplied to you in the question.
Preparation Strategies/ FAQ
- The Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and English Language sections of the UG CLAT 2022 are somewhat related, in the sense that they all require you to read and comprehend a passage well. As such, some of the preparation techniques that apply to the English Language and Logical Reasoning sections of the UG CLAT 2022 may also serve you well for this section. See if you want to schedule your preparation time such that you focus on these three subjects as a group.
- Since this section of the UG CLAT 2022 is somewhat different from previous years’ papers, you may think that it would not be helpful to attempt Legal Reasoning questions from previous years’ papers, but this would be a mistake. While the previous years’ questions may not ask you to pull out a principle from a passage, and may instead supply the principle directly to you, there is still great value in attempting those questions, since they will help you develop the skill of analysing a principle, examining a fact situation closely, and applying one to the other.
- The sample questions and Model Papers provided by the CLAT Consortium would, of course, be one of the best sources of preparation. If you are already familiar with the pattern of these questions from the sample questions or the First Model Paper, consider attempting this section in the later Model Papers (or indeed, the entire paper) in something similar to an actual test environment – time yourself, and make sure you do not take any external help in attempting these questions. Then, analyse the results and try and determine what’s going right, and what isn’t – are you able to pull out the principle but not break it down? Or are you able to deal with the principle easily, but can’t understand the fact situations properly? If the first, perhaps some extra work on Logical Reasoning may help; if the second, maybe you should spend a little more time on the English Language preparations.
How to approach questions in the Logical Reasoning section of the UG CLAT
- As you can well imagine, arguments are a very important part of studying law. Arguments are usually sets of facts or pieces of evidence (called ‘premises’) which support a ‘conclusion’. These premises and conclusions together form arguments, and arguments are at the heart of the Logical Reasoning section of the UG CLAT.
- Given this, the first thing you should do when attempting a question in this section of the UG CLAT is to carefully identify the various premises and conclusions in the passage. Once you have done this, you will be better prepared to take on the questions.
- Now that you have identified the premises and conclusions in the passage, try and determine if there is an overall theme, point, or conclusion to the passage. This is important, not only because many questions will ask you to identify these, but also because they will give you a better understanding of the overall tone, theme, and parts of the passage. With this information at hand, you should be able to easily answer questions that ask you to identify the main theme or conclusion of the passage, as well as questions that ask you to identify arguments in support of, or against, the author’s arguments.
- Some passages may include more than one point of view, or more than one set of arguments, some of which may weaken or contradict each other. Identifying and separating these is very important, so that you know not only what the main conclusion is, but whether the passage has a main conclusion at all, or if it only presents different points of view.
- As always, it is very important you read each question carefully before trying to determine what the correct answer is. A question may ask which option weakens the argument in the passage – in which case it is safe to assume that only one of the options weakens the argument in the passage; or it may ask which option most weakens the argument in the passage – in which case more than one option may weaken the argument in the passage, and it is your job to identify which weakens the argument the most.
- Some questions may ask you to assume certain things as true, even when you may otherwise know them to be false, or even if they contradict the information in the passage. In such situations, it is important that you follow the instructions in the question strictly – remember, the question setters are examining your ability to read and comprehend information and instructions in this section, and not your pre-existing knowledge. The question setters are also interested in understanding how quickly you can adapt to changes in facts, premises, and conclusions, and so, it is important that you approach each question without carrying any baggage from the previous questions.
- When a question asks you what a statement from the passage implies, you are required to do two things – look at the statement and see what it says explicitly, and also try and determine what it may mean, without stating explicitly. To do this, you will have to apply all the skills that this section requires of you – not only will you have to comprehend the statement and its parts, you will also have to extend the argument to the various possibilities set out in the options. In such a case, identifying the overall theme or conclusion of the passage, which we talked about a little earlier, is very helpful – the overall theme or principle often provides you a simple summary of the arguments in the passage that can help you extend the statement to the different possibilities set out in the options.
Preparation Strategies/ FAQ
- Some questions from the older formats may still be included – such as logic games or syllogisms. It would, therefore, be a good idea to practice with previous years’ papers, so that you can pick up some ‘easy’ marks for such questions.
- As we saw in the video on Legal Reasoning, this section of the UG CLAT 2022 is closely related to the English Language and Legal Reasoning sections. Given this, it would be a good idea to modify your preparation strategy so that you prepare for these three sections together. Very often, the same, or similar sources are used by the question setters for questions in this section as in the English Language and Legal Reasoning sections – such as opinion and editorial pieces from newspapers. Since this is the case, every time you read a newspaper story while preparing for English Language, Legal Reasoning, or even Current Affairs and General Knowledge, try and go through the steps identified previously in this video – what is the main point of the passage? What is the author’s stance on a particular issue? What premises does the author offer in support of the conclusion? How would the conclusion differ if the premises were changed? And so on… As with the Current Affairs and General Knowledge section of the UG CLAT 2022, this is another section where discussions with a small group of people may help – try and create different versions of a principle or facts, and ask others to determine how they may affect the main argument or outcome of a passage or a question – the more you debate points with others, the greater the variety of arguments and reasoning styles you will encounter, which will help you tremendously with your preparations.
- The sample questions and Model Papers released by the CLAT Consortium are, of course, your best source for practice – but there are a number of different sources where you may come across similar questions. In particular, try and see if you want to practice with the free question sets offered on the website of the LSAT or the LNAT – while these may not correspond exactly with the pattern of the UG CLAT 2022, they will help you develop the same skills of comprehension, analysis, deduction, and application that the Logical Reasoning section of the UG CLAT 2022 seeks to evaluate.
How to approach questions in the Quantitative Techniques section of the UG CLAT
- It requires you to read a passage or analyse a set of graphical information before attempting a question, it is very important that you go through the passage provided, or the graphical information supplied to you, and list out (or underline) the information that is provided to you, and the information that you may need to answer the questions. As a simple example, a passage may provide the various speeds of trains, and the distance between two stations – in this case you know that you will probably need to calculate the time such trains may take to cover such distances.
- Again, since the Quantitative Techniques section of the UG CLAT follows the general trend of changes in the CLAT towards a more comprehension-based format, it is important that you read the passages and questions very carefully, so as to ensure you have understood the information supplied, and what exactly the question is asking of you. Bear in mind that the question setters would tend to move away from formulae-based questions towards more logic-based questions – this means that they are not only looking at your ability to conduct simple mathematical calculations, they are also looking for your ability to analyse the passages and graphical information.
- Quite often, it will require you to use some information that you may have calculated or derived in the course of answering a previous question. Since this is the case, it is important that you keep your rough notes and calculations neat and handy, so that you can quickly refer to such information when needed. It would be a terrible waste of time if you had to hunt through your rough notes and calculations to find some vital piece of information.
- In some instances, it is very helpful to keep a set of rough notes where you list out the main people, objects, or artifacts that the question relates to (such as trains, boats, vessels, etc.), and keep listing out relevant information relating to each of them as you go along – for example, in a question about time, speed, and distance, it is very useful to have information such as the length of a train, its speed, and what time it leaves a station, readily available. Not only will this save you time, it will also help avoid any mistakes in going back and forth across your notes to find some information that you had derived some time back.
Preparation Strategies/ FAQ
- Practice is key in preparing for Quantitative Techniques – and in this case, luckily, you should have ready access to more than enough practice materials. The best way to prepare for this section is to go back to your tenth standard mathematics textbooks, and try and practice the questions and exercises in them as much as possible. Another good source for practice materials? The previous years’ question papers – while they may not include the additional element of requiring you to analyse a passage or graphical information and derive usable information from them, they will still help you develop the ability to perform common mathematical calculations quickly and accurately.
- When you begin preparing for Quantitative Techniques, do not worry too much about how much time you need to answer questions – the more important thing at this stage is to answer questions accurately. As you practice, and as you develop a habit of being able to derive accurate answers, you can start focusing on speed. At this stage, it should be relatively easier for you to answer questions more quickly, since you have already figured out how to answer them accurately!
- Whenever you attempt a set of practice questions, or a sample test, don’t just look at the answers to find out if you were right or wrong – always make sure you go through the solution as well, to see if the manner in which you solved the question can be improved upon. While you may have found the right answer to a question, it is quite possible that someone else has figured out a quicker or easier way to do so, and it would benefit you to understand that method of solving the question as well.
CLAT: Colleges Accepting Scores for Admission in UG Courses
Name of the college, UG Seat Intake
National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru – 120
The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata -105
National Law University, Jodhpur -104
Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Gandhinagar -174
Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNLU), Patiala -175
National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi -60
National University of Study & Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi -120
Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University (DSNLU), Visakhapatnam -120
Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU), Mumbai -100
Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad -60
Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU), Jabalpur -120
National Academy of Legal Study & Research (NALSAR) University of Law, Hyderabad -120
National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal -102
Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU), Raipur -170
Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow -169
Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna -132
National Law University Odisha (NLUO), Cuttack -159
National Law University & Judicial Academy (NLUJA), Assam -60
The Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU), Tiruchirapalli -114
Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur -120
Himachal Pradesh National Law University (HPNLU), Shimla -120
Dr B R Ambedkar National Law University (DBRANLU), Sonipat, Haryana -120
PATTERN
Sections | Number of Questions | CLAT Total Marks | Weightage |
English Language | 28-32 | 28-32 | 20% |
Current Affairs, including General Knowledge | 35-39 | 32-35 | 25% |
Legal Reasoning | 35-39 | 35-39 | 25% |
Logical Reasoning | 28-32 | 28-32 | 20% |
Quantitative Techniques | 13-17 | 13-17 | 10% |
Total | 150 | 150 | 100% |
Marking Scheme
CLAT 2022 marking scheme is the same for both UG and PG exams. Total number of questions in CLAT UG is 150.
Parameters | Marks Awarded |
Correct answer | 1 |
Incorrect answer | – 0.25 |
Unanswered | 0 |
CLAT 2022 Exam: Recommended Books
Candidates can refer to these books while preparing for CLAT 2022.
Subject | Name of Book | Publisher/Author |
English | Word Power Made Easy | Norman Lewis |
High School English Grammar and Composition Key | Wren & Martin | |
Current Affairs | Manorama Yearbook 2021 | Manorama |
Current Affairs Yearly 2021 | Arihant | |
Legal Reasoning | Legal Awareness Legal Reasoning | Bhardwaj |
Legal Aptitude for the CLAT and other Law Entrance Examinations | Bhardwaj | |
Logical Reasoning | Universal’s Logical Reasoning for CLAT, LSAT and other Law Entrance Exams | Jain Prateek |
Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning | RS Agarwal | |
Quantitative Techniques | Universal’s Elementary Mathematics (Numerical Ability) | Jain Prateek |
Quantitative Aptitude | RS Aggarwal | |
Constitutional Law | Indian Constitutional Law | M P Jain |
The Constitution of India | P M Bakshi |
General Instructions
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE OF YEAR-2022.
- The CLAT 2022 examination will be held in OFFLINE mode
- The applications have to be submitted ONLINE only from consortiumofnlus.ac.in website.
- The date of examination is scheduled on 19th June 2022 from 2 PM to 4 PM. (Subject to revision in case of necessity)
- Indian Nationals/NRIs/PIO/OCI seeking admission in either of the UG programmes shall appear in CLAT 2022.
- Foreign Nationals need not appear for the test
- For any information relating to the 22 NLUs, the candidate may refer to the e-brochure of the respective Institutions available in the Consortium website.
- For NRI/NRI Sponsored/Foreign National seats, the applicants are advised to refer to the e-brochures as well as the websites of the respective NLUs for more details. All NRI Category candidates have to appear for the CLAT 2022 examination for those NLUs where such category is admitted through CLAT 2022 rankings and not admitted directly by the concerned Universities. Please note that for admission in these categories, you will need to apply directly to the concerned NLU in addition to appearing for the CLAT exam. Please refer to the NLU website for more information.
- Information regarding the details of intake, reservation policies and the courses offered along with the fee structures of various participating National Law Universities is available in the Information Brochure which can be accessed from the official website of CLAT and also from the websites of the participating NLUs. The candidates are, therefore, advised to thoroughly go through the rules, policies and the fee structure of the participating NLUs before filling in the application form for UG courses, and also for the NRI and Foreign National seats.
- Information provided in the e-Brochure regarding the intake, reservation policy, fee, courses offered and the subjects taught at various levels including the areas of specialization, etc., has been specified very briefly. For detailed information regarding the same, the candidates may refer to the information available at the websites of the participating NLUs.
- Candidates are advised to visit CLAT 2022 website regularly for updates. The allotment of seats and the offer for admission under CLAT 2022 shall be provisional and shall not create any right of admission in favour of a candidate.
Other instructions
- The online enrolment for CLAT 2022 will open on 1st January 2022 and close on 9th May, 2022.
- The application form, complete in all respects and after payment of fees must be finally submitted and paid on or before 9th May, 2022 (11:59 P.M.). Incomplete application forms shall not be considered. The candidates shall fill and submit the application form well in time to avoid last minute hassles. The CLAT Office or the organizing University shall in no case be responsible for any incomplete information or misinformation or inconvenience faced by the candidate in this regard.
- The candidates are first required to register themselves at the CLAT 2022 website by using personal mobile number and e-mail Id. Upon registration, an OTP will be sent to the registered mobile number for validation. Once the mobile number is validated, candidates can login using the registered mobile number and the password provided at the time of registration.
- Please fill the form carefully. The Name of the candidate and the parents shall be spelt correctly in the application as it appears in the Certificates/Mark sheets/Identity proof. Any change/alteration found may disqualify the candidature.
- Please note that once the application is submitted and paid, the candidate cannot change the program, category, and BPL field.
- Updates to application form will be not be entertained after the closure date.
- The candidates are required to read the instructions carefully and furnish correct and authentic information. In case the information furnished at any stage of the application, examination and admission process is found to be false or incorrect or if there is any discrepancy or mismatch between the information furnished by the candidate at the relevant section and the certificates/documents produced at the time of admission, the provisional admission offered to the candidate shall stand cancelled with immediate effect without assigning any further reason and the candidate shall stand disqualified from being considered for further admission to the NLUs by the CLAT Consortium Office.
- The candidate shall fill his/her preference order for all 22 NLUs after the results are declared.
- The candidates are requested to choose the program (UG/PG) and category correctly. Requests for change of program or category in the application form will not be entertained.
- In the event of unforeseen incidents resulting in the cancellation of a Test city or centre, or insufficient or extra number of candidates opting to appear from a particular Test Centre, the Convenor, CLAT 2022 reserves the right to cancel such a City/Centre and shift the applicant to another City/Centre
- In order to claim the benefit of reservation, the candidate must produce the relevant certificates as prescribed by the Government of India/State Government and as required by the respective NLU at the time of admission, as notified by them.
- The CLAT 2022 application fee is non-refundable and non-adjustable.
- Participating National Law Universities reserve the right to change the total number of seats and break-up of seats as per their policy before the final allotment. The reservation policy is subject to change as decided by the concerned Government from time to time.
- If a candidate has filled-in more than one online application form, the candidate’s last online application form only will be considered. In such cases, the application fee for the previous application forms will not be refunded.
Documents to be uploaded with the Online Application.
- Front facing passport size recent photograph with plain background
- Signature of the candidate
- Category certificate if you are applying under SC/ST/OBC
- Relevant certificate issued by competent authority if you are applying if candidate is P.W.D
- Relevant certificate issued by competent authority if you are coming under BPL category
NOTE:
- The original certificates/documents issued by the competent authority as specified in the brochure are to be submitted to the allotted University in the form and manner as specified by the respective universities at the time of admission.
- The photograph and signature of the candidate need not be attested while submitting the Online Application Form.
- All documents/certificates should be uploaded in pdf format only.
Application Fee
- Application fees can be paid online only.
- Application fee for General/OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO/OCI candidates: Rs.4,000/-
- Application fee for SC/ST/BPL category candidates: Rs.3,500/-
- The cost of previous years’ question papers is Rs.500/- (not included in the CLAT 2022 application fee of Rs.4,000/- or Rs.3,500/- as the case may be.)
- The candidates themselves will have to bear the bank transaction charges for remitting the fee online. The actual bank transaction charges will be displayed in the payment gateway page after candidates choose the mode of payment.
- Application Fees is non-refundable.