CLAT
The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralized national-level entrance test for admissions to the 25 out of 27 National Law Universities (NLU) except NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya. CLAT was first introduced in 2008 as a centralized entrance examination for admission to the National Law Schools/Universities in India.
NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya administer their own entrance exams, the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) and the NLU Meg Undergraduate Admission Test (MEG UAT), respectively. Both AILET & MEG UAT are anticipated to be merged into CLAT in the coming years. A few private and self-financed law schools in India also use these scores for law admissions. Public sector undertakings in India like ONGC, Coal India, BHEL, the Steel Authority of India, Oil India, the Indian Army (for the recruitment of Judge Advocate General officers) use CLAT Post Graduation (CLAT PG) scores.
The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade for admission to integrated undergraduate degrees in Law (BA/BBA/B.COM/B.SC/BSW LLB) and after graduation in an undergraduate law program for Master of Laws (LL.M) programs. It is considered one of the TOP 10 toughest entrance examinations in India with the acceptance rate being as low as 3 percent.
CLAT Exam Eligibility
The Consortium of NLUs has detailed the CLAT eligibility criteria for various UG and PG programmes on its official website. Any candidate desirous of taking the Common Law Admission Test should thoroughly go through the same. Further, candidates must also go through the individual websites of the colleges they wish to apply to to check their eligibility. The eligibility criteria include details about age, and minimum qualification, among other things.
CLAT UG Eligibility Criteria
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Particulars
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Details
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Educational qualification
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10+2 or equivalent. Candidates appearing in their qualifying exams are also eligible to apply.
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Minimum passing marks
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45% for General / OBC / PWD / NRI / PIO / OCI categories
40% for SC/ST categories
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Age limit
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No age limit
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CLAT PG Eligibility Criteria
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Particulars
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Details
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Educational Qualification
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3-year LLB or 5-year LLB. Candidates appearing in their qualifying exams are also eligible to apply.
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Minimum passing marks
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50% for General/OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO/OCI categories
45% for SC/ST categories
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Age Limit
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No age limit
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CLAT UG Exam Syllabus
The CLAT UG exam syllabus covers 5 different sections namely English Language, Current Affairs, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Techniques. There will be 120 questions in the CLAT UG paper, each worth one mark. For each incorrect response, 0.25 marks will be deducted from the final score. The duration of the exam is two hours.
CLAT UG Syllabus
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Subject Area
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Number of Questions (New Pattern)
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English Language
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22-26 questions
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Current Affairs with General Knowledge
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28-32 questions
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Legal Reasoning
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28-32 questions
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Logical Reasoning
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22-26 questions
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Quantitative Techniques
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10-14 questions
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PG – CLAT Exam Syllabus
The syllabus for the postgraduate course focuses on the subject expertise of the aspiring candidates. The CLAT LLM Exam syllabus will test the candidate’s proficiency in matters concerning different laws that are specified in the table below.
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CLAT PG Syllabus
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Criminal law
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Constitutional law
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Jurisprudence
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Property law
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Constitutional law
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Public international law
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Administrative law
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Tax law
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Family law
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Labour and International law
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Law of contract
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Environmental law
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Company law
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Torts
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The PG-CLAT exam pattern consists of 120 questions, and the candidate will get a total of 120 minutes to attempt the questions. Each question carries one mark while there is a negative marking of 0.25 for every incorrect response.