Changes in CLAT 2020 - preparation & strategy

Changes in CLAT 2020 - preparation & strategy The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) will conduct the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 on May 10. This year, the consortium has changed and revised the existing exam pattern of CLAT to a entirely new one. The new exam pattern for CLAT consists and contains a reduced total number of questions of 150 and, as announced and declared by the consortium, the paper will have more number of comprehension type of questions. This change in exam pattern was announced on November 21 and, it received a set of mixed reviews from the law aspirants. By and large, CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) is contemplated as one of the most difficult examinations to crack in India. While the number of aspirants appearing for the same, is still much less as compared to some of the other leading examinations at the after XII level such as the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) or the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), the number of seats offered, too is on the lower side. And thus, this makes the chore of securing a seat at any of the prime NLUs (National Law Universities), such as in Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata or the others, amongst the toughest. CLAT 2020 is less than 2 months away, and generally, this is the time when students start panicking about the preparation and exam strategy. Some of the aspirants go for a two-year preparation period, while some others go for a yearlong prep period and whereas there are some who even crack the exam during a months preparations after their boards, however, it precisely depends on ones strategy and preparation pattern for the said exam. And obviously ever since the changes regarding the new CLAT paper pattern have been announced, the law aspirants are baffled and, many CLAT experts are working on the framing the right preparation strategy for CLAT 2020 as per the new pattern. As a correct and appropriate strategy can be said to be the key towards the success of any aspirant in the CLAT examination, Let us talk about a appropriate and correct strategy to tackle the CLAT: Since CLAT consortium has changed the CLAT exam pattern, many students are finding it slightly difficult to cope with the changes. Thus in this article we have and intend to discuss and make you aware of the shift in the pattern of Legal Reasoning section, ways to prepare for the same and some tips and tricks to ace the Legal Reasoning section of the CLAT exam. Shedding some light on Legal Reasoning Section (New Pattern) and Just a rehash, Legal Reasoning section of the new CLAT 2020 paper pattern will consist of just about 35-39 questions carrying one mark for each correct answer and 0.25 negative mark for each wrong answer. As announced by the consortium the Legal Reasoning section of the new revised paper pattern for CLAT 2020 will include questions based on legal comprehension which means that there will be a passage given related to any static or current legal issue followed by 5- 6 questions. The questions are expected to be both straight forward questions and Legal Reasoning based questions. It is assumed and expected that the straight forward questions are included to assess the ability of the student to put forth the best conclusion or supporting argument related to the legal issue discussed in the passage. And this perhaps require a good and non-partisan or neutral comprehending skills of the students to gain a solution for given such questions. Whereas on the the other hand, the other se and kind of questions asked, will be based on Legal Reasoning viz students will be assessed on the basis of the given hypothetical situation and that they are expected to decide the case applying the legal knowledge provided to them in the passage. These questions to a great extent are ideally based on the same previous pattern of principle-fact based questions. The sole and mere difference which can be understood generally is that instead of a legal principle, there will be a passage related to law. How should one prepare as per the new pattern? Undoubtedly, with the new revised change in the paper pattern, the Legal Reasoning section has comparatively become lengthier and that students now are expected to find it tad bit difficult to finish the entire section in the stipulated time of 30 to 32 minutes. The one thing to come to the rescue to combat this difficulty proving to be fruitful could be a decent reading speed. So read and read and read and as much as you can do so With barelly two months left for CLAT 2020, all the students ideally should be engaging around 2 to 3 hours reading newspapers, blogs, magazines etc. Starting with any good and reputed newspaper (The Hindu or Economic Times). You can also read the editorial section and all-important news articles in the newspaper, this will not only serve as a good read but the information provided here will help you with your preparation for both Legal Reasoning as well as current affairs section. Legal Reasoning Topics for CLAT 2020 To be able to perform better at Legal Reasoning, read articles related to static and current legal issues. Go through the current legal issues in the last ten months and read about them. Read about the landmark and important cases decided in last one year, all the new amendments and enactments done in both monsoon and winter session of the parliament along with contemporary issues like LGBTQ rights or death penalty which have been a part of the news in the last few months. Reading about static and current legal issues prior to your CLAT 2020 will give you a basic understanding of the topic which will further help you in understanding the passage easily and at a much faster pace during your final exam. Secondly, you might land up in a situation where you are running out of time and cannot invest the last three-four minutes left in reading the entire passage. Here, your prior basic understanding of the legal issue will be of great help as you might be able to answer a couple of questions even without reading the entire passage word to word. So reading is the key to score well in CLAT 2020. Once you have started your reading journey and working on your legal vocabulary, the next are the tips and tricks to score well in the exam. 1) Read the comprehension prior to attempting the questions always. This will ensure you not forming opinions by reading the hypothetical situation first and end up marking answers in a biased manner. 2) You are expected to keep in mind the views of the author while answering the questions and do not mix it with your own. While choosing the right option among the two correct options, you can always go with the one which has clearer reference to the passage. 3) The most importantly, do not miss any Mock Tests or any practice test provided to you. As we would know that there are no proper reference books available on the new pattern and the only source to practice these questions are the tests provided to you. So take the tests seriously and try to improve your legal comprehension skills through these tests. to prepare for English/ Reading Comprehension section of CLAT question paper, some of the following tips can prove to be useful to the aspirants out there I hope you all have started improving your language in order to crack the CLAT exam and, I guess you have become completely clueless by now. I bet you do not wish to be a cat that thinks itself as a lion. And thus always remember that this journey should begin with a self-analysis. You would be cheating yourself if you are not very much aware of your strengths and weaknesses for the upcoming CLAT examination and Hence, it would be a good idea that you start taking some mock tests to get a reality check about your preparation level. Once you figure it out, you need to improve a bit in every topic and chalk-out a practice-plan. Firstly, Let us have a roadmap to becoming an avid reader, which is pretty much the means and ends of this journey. 1) The Art Of War by Sun Tzu 2) The Guide by R.K Narayan 3) Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. 4) Asura by Anand Nilkantan 5) Holy War by Dr. Karen Armstrong 6) An era of Darkness by Shashi Tharoor 7) Animal Farm by George Orwell 8) Siddhartha By Herman Hesse From the above given list how many books have you read? expecting at least one to be the answer. But whereas, In case you are just beginning, pick books from this list and dig into them. Read all or most of these books and get some reading confidence behind yourself. Apart from this in order to ace at this section you can also pick-up articles from some of the good newspapers likeThe Hindu, The Indian Express or The Times of India on a daily basis. The Sunday editions are always the best content to read as they offer a quick recap of the week as well as an interesting analysis which would also help you to give yourself extra time to read these. Once you have made on the aforementioned you would be ready for an initial dose of Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning also. Best preparation strategy according to the new exam pattern of CLAT. With less than two months remaining for CLAT 2020, to score well in the exam would be focusing more on critical reasoning based questions, core law topics and related news, reading and vocabulary enhancement etc. For the data Interpretation you need familiarity with few elementary concepts of mathematics such as Averages and Percentages. After which try and solve as many sets as possible in order to gain familiarity with as many type of various sets of questions, graphs, pie-charts as possible. Earlier A student whereas needed a wider range of topics to score well in this section in the particular pattern. With the changed pattern for CLAT exam, the pattern for GK has also changed and approach towards its preparation also needs to be revised. Just mugging up as one would do for the earlier pattern for CLAT would no more suffice to score in this section. Going ahead, developing a habit of VISUALISING and ASSIMILATING every event that you come across in News-Narration format. Specifically for news from highly important topics mentioned at the beginning, You can also make your own notes simultaneously covering news & narration having 2-3 bullets. This would help you to prepare for the CORE news & PERIPHERAL details along with And therefore practicing this you would in addition to OBVIOUS knowledge, also be gaining Not-so-Obvious knowledge about an event. This precisely will turn out to be a clear scoring differentiator over the other sections. Special attention and a read towards major International issues such as the upcoming US elections, Trumps Impeachment, Brexit and the Corona Outbreak is highly recommended. Remember, working consistently on your reading skills is key to succeeding in CLAT 2020. You might not get an instant takeaway after reading for a couple of hours but trust the process. Eventually, you will get a complete hang of the new pattern. So, stay positive and prepare well. All the best!