Ans. CLAT exam was started in 2008, before that each law school conducted their own entrance exam.

Ans. CLAT is the entrance examination conducted by 22 National Law Universities (earlier it was 14 NLUs in CLAT-2014). In 2008, the first CLAT Core Committee consisting of Vice-Chancellors of participating NLUs had decided that the test should be conducted on rotational basis by participating NLUs in the order of their establishment. The first CLAT exam was conducted by NLSIU, Bangalore in 2008.

• Maximum Marks 150
• Duration of CLAT 2020 Exam 02:00 Hours
• Multiple Choice Questions: 150 questions of one mark each
• Negative Marking: 0.25 Mark for each wrong answer
• Subject Areas with weightage: (approximate number of questions)
• English Language: 28-32 questions, or roughly 20% of the paper
• Current Affairs, including General Knowledge: 35-39 questions, or roughly 25% of the paper
• Legal Reasoning: 35-39 questions, or roughly 25% of the paper
• Logical Reasoning: 28-32 questions, or roughly 20% of the paper
• Quantitative Techniques: 13-17 questions, or roughly 10% of the paper

GUIDE TO THE UG-CLAT 2020

The Consortium of National Law Universities (the “Consortium”) announced certain modifications in the pattern of the Common Law Admission Test (the “CLAT”), 2020 in its Press Release of November 21, 2019.

his note describes the proposed pattern of questions for each of the five specified areas that the Undergraduate-CLAT 2020 (the "UG-CLAT 2020") would comprise.

Introduction and Overview

The UG-CLAT 2020 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 2020 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 2020, 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
• 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
• 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 2020 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 2020 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
• Apply various 10th standard mathematical operations on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation

In this year 2020, the CLAT exam will be conducted in offline mode i.e. Pen & Paper based.

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 will be held on 10th May, 2020.

Yes, 0.25 marks will be deducted for each wrong answer.