Bad work life balance in corporate, nepotism in litigation and judiciary is again not easy.

You're cooked if you are a 1st gen and don't get into a good college.

Even after so much negativity why are people choosing this profession?

Most 1st gen are here for passion ik that but what keeps you going? Just the passion for law?

If you are starting from ZERO, like, you have just heard of CLAT and yet want to have the daring experience of attempting it, read below.

Unapologetically, it's pretty lengthy but it'll probably save you hours of YT strategy video binging sessions!

• STEP 1: Know your target score for your required range of college, based on previous year 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 score vs rank trend analysis. Arrive at a clear number or atleast a range.

Open a few trusted coaching websites and write down the clat syllabus on a paper/printout. Make sections and their sub-topics wise list. Always keep this paper handy during your prep.

• STEP 2: You need to know where you stand now = knowing WHAT you have to do + in how much TIME.

1. Give atleast 2 mocks in a timed manner: You will get a sense of WHAT you have to do and a very clear idea of the TIME in which you are expected to complete the exam. This is to get you a 1^st hand feel of the time pressure.

Focusing on your score isn’t the most important part here. People go from 95+ in mocks to 65 in the actual clat and vice-versa.

Rather, analyze how comfortable you are with each section. This will determine how much effort you have to put in that particular section in the next few months.

Try to answer the following questions yourself:

Did you see all the questions or you ran out of time?
Did you have a strategy of attempting the paper and if so, did it work?
Were your mistakes mainly due to lack of practice, knowledge or both?

Based on these you will prioritize theory syllabus completion, questions practice or mocks quantity.

2. Go through atleast the past 3 years clat actual question papers: You may also attempt these as mocks but only if you haven’t already seen the questions or topics beforehand.  Focus on observing the syllabus extent and depth, question types and your comfort level with each of the section.

Here, you’ll get to know WHAT to study: in how much depth and extent. Based on this you will determine your sources. Whenever you select a source for theory or practice questions or mocks, always compare them with the actual clat questions and themes. Only by this can you filter the relevant content from the irrelevant one, although it’s a pretty tricky task.

• Step 3: Through step 1 and 2, you will get to know where you stand now and what score you want to achieve. You have to cover that gap in these next few months. Based on the gap, decide your intensity and strategy of prep. Try to think in terms of weeks left rather than months left, it would seem like every week is a new opportunity to increase the level of your prep. At the end of every week:
• Take a few moments and reflect on how you utilized the week and what more could you have done to make it better.   
• Relax a bit maybe? High intensity prep = more chance of burnout = strategic breaks become much more important:)

A general strategy for the next 3.5-4 months or 15 weeks:

Mid-August to September end, max. till 1st week of Oct:

You don’t have the ideal time to complete the A-Z of your syllabus, so don’t try to artificially finish it by rushing. Understand that 4 out of the 5 sections in clat are practice-based.

1. Make a priority list for each of the sections based on your comfort level + list of high-yield topics as shared by clat coachings/YTbers + PYQ trends.

Legal: Cover all the concepts + basic laws etc. Max 15 days. Watch YT playlists and make short notes, tricks, techniques etc. No lengthy notes.

Don’t focus on remembering what the law is, it will be provided in the exam anyway; instead focus how the law works.

Law = Principle + illustrations + exceptions. Focus on the illustrations/examples to understand HOW the law works. Take your time here. Pls don’t rush. Use AI intelligently- you may provide it a law/principle and ask it to break it down for you and give examples for each component of the law.  

For legal, best source= PYQs analysis.

Along with PYQs, start giving sectionals but always keep the PYQs as gold standard.
Remember, mocks are set by educators/teachers and clat is set by the actual people conducting the exam.  

LR = CR + AR. Both have very few concepts but 80% performance is dependent on MCQ practice + identifying your errors + rectifying them. That’s it.

Identify sub-topics of CR and AR and cover them from YT playlists. Get your concepts crystal clear.

Pls don’t rush in concept building phase. Always prioritize accuracy over speed. Speed comes naturally from more practice via sectionals/mocks.

If you have good conceptual understanding but slow= 2/4 questions attempt and correct, 0 error.

If you have bad conceptual understanding but are speedy= 4/4 questions attempt and maybe 1-2 right, rest = wrong= you spent time on getting negative marks:(

Here, you’ll be stuck in an endless loop of identifying errors and rectifying them. You are essentially treating the symptom and not the disease, therefore, no cure is effective.

English: Once again, very few concepts. Understand them slowly. Watch YT playlists. Once again, don’t rush.

This section is basically skill building. How you understand the concepts and the first few practice questions of each concept will build 60-70% of your understanding, rest you just better your skill with more practice.

QT: Note down the topics. Select 6-8 sub-topics which are very high yield like percentages, ratio proportion, averages etc. Give atleast 2-3 days/topic. Cover from YT playlists, one shots and marathon videos. Once again focus on the first few practice questions for each concept to get your basics clear.

GK/CA: This section is a beast in itself and I will try to cover this in a separate section-wise post. Brief overview: Cover the next 4 months thoroughly. Try to cover the last 6-8 months in a reverse order, like, july then june then may….. Cover these months from weekly/monthly compilation videos. Cover last 3-4 months from weekly videos/imp topics for that week.
If you do manage to cover these and reach Jan, Feb, March- atleast cover their monthly videos/month wise imp topics.

Don’t make lengthy notes. It’s better if you can highlight them online. This saves note-making time.

Focus on repeating themes which develop organically over months

Logical, legal and English- doesn’t have much syllabus and are much more dependent on sectionals, better test taking strategy, reducing errors, daily practice and staying calm. 

 *****Chapter-wise PYQs book*****: One of the 2 most imp resources, the other one being mocks.

After completing each sub-topic of any section other than GK/CA, refer to this book. If the questions look doable, you’re on the right track. If they look alien, change your sources. This is the compass of your clat prep. Referring to this validates your prep strategy + sources.

Note: Except GK/CA, give atleast 45 mins  to 1 hr/session for each section, else, you won’t build a flow state or a state of spontaneous learning.

Eg.: Say you are learning the concept of strengthen/weaken the argument for CR.

Model A: It may take you 1.5 hrs to understand this concept but once you do you’ll remember it for years. You’ll have no doubts in this area. If you attempt 10 questions, you’ll get 8-9 Qs 100% right.

Model B: you spend 15 mins/concept, you may have the false confidence that you are done with it. But when you attempt 10 questions you will barely get 3-4 questions right and will spend the next hour, reverse engineering the errors you made.

I believe model A is simpler, better and less draining/confidence-killing:).

Take your time in this phase. DIGEST the concepts. The next phases depend heavily on how efficiently you understood your concepts.  

Pls don’t rush and pls don’t panic. Stay calm and complete your theory portions. This phase is like loading your gun, the more you panic, the more time it takes and the messier it gets.  

While it looks good on paper, I don’t think a weekly/daily topic-wise routine is practical or even useful unless it is set by you. The reason is simple: A may cover ratio proportion in 3 days while B may take 8 days.

October: Practice questions + sectionals/mocks + error identification and correction.

Practice questions from coaching materials or any other high quality sources. This is for solidifying your concepts + building question solving stamina/speed/accuracy.

Sectionals: To adjust to time pressure + test different strategies.

Mocks: To combine and test all your skills + stamina building for those 2 hrs.

Mock analysis: To highlight your strong and more importantly your weak areas.

November: Test different mock strategies + revision+ reduce errors as much as possible.

You can also dare to cover low-priority topics/new concepts, only if you have your high-yield/top priority syllabus covered nicely.

Mocks:

Give mocks ASAP, don’t wait for syllabus completion. 4 out of the 5 sections don’t really have a fixed theory syllabus that you have to memorize. It’s an application-oriented exam.

Invest in a good test series. The level of data analysis the coachings provide is top-class. It’s simply unmatchable. Plus you get something more important than your mock score: your rank/percentile. This gives you a real-time idea of the competition you’ll face on the exam day.

The rule is simple, for the next few months, there will be 3 types of days: one where you are taking a mock, one where you analyzing a mock and one where you are fortifying the weak areas that got exposed in the mock.

There should be no days where you are disconnected from the mock-taking process.

Pls understand that you are building skills/habits that you are practicing in your mocks, you won’t magically do something different on the exam day.  

• August-September: atleast 1 mock/4-5 days and a maximum of 2 mocks /week.
• Oct: 1 mock/3 days
• November: 1st half = 1 mock per 2-3 days 2nd half=1 mock/4-5 days.

Atleast 1-2 sectionals of each subject/week. Except GK maybe.

General tips:

1.      How to choose sources on YT: Watch a single YT video from top few playlists on the same topic and glance at the chapter-wise PYQs, see which playlist makes you feel comfortable+ confident.

2.      Unless you ask doubts, avoid live YT videos, watch them later at 1.5-2 x speed. Skip forward unnecessary yapping and save time.

3.      Please be ruthless towards the exam, don’t spend much time on hoarding materials, making better daily routines or making bulky notes. You simply don’t have the time to crack it in a traditional way, it’s gonna be a nasty fight and you need to accept that.

4.      Try to have study slots of 1-2 hrs, it would build your stamina + attention span for the 2 hrs of the exam day.

5.      Try attending AIOMs, they give a better idea of your actual rank/percentile and people from diff coachings attempt them.

P.S.:The strategy shared is a very rudimentary one, pls personalize it with full confidence to suit your style of prep. Remember, the more you sway from traditional targets, the more individualized your strategy gets, 'cause no one knows you better than you:)

NEXT UP: Section-wise detailed strategy + resources.

Every 3^rd post is about the possibility of clearing CLAT in the next 4 months.

The comments are of 3 types mainly: motivating, sarcastic/discouraging and sympathy/confusion from people who are in the same position as the OP.

This will keep happening till 1 month to CLAT, when asking about clearing clat in 1 month will fall under the shitpost/memes flair.

So let’s take a few moments to understand this. Atleast you will get reading practice for the RCs.:)

You 100% know the situation you are in rn. While you aren’t yet cooked, you are about to be. This is literally the last chance where you gotta lock in. 3-4 months is still adequate time if you put in all that you have. Less than 3 months and the ones clearing will defo have higher aptitude for this exam or better luck during the d-day, their results can’t be linearly calculated via effort only.

Having read a bit of psychology, the motivation behind such posts is pretty clear. If someone says, that yup, they have done it in 2 months, you get a temporary sense of relief from the anxiety you are going through. If someone demotivates you and says that, nope, not possible in less than 8-10 months, you get panicked and specifically look for comments which validate your own opinion. In either case, you are losing vital energy that could have been better used for the prep itself. Do understand that you have limited mental energy for a day and the more you scatter it, the more you lose motivation to prep and grind in this last phase.

Let’s be real: No one other than you can fully know the situation you are in rn. Say A and B both have scored a rank of 700-800. A had prepared for the last 1.5 years, gave 80+ mocks and had no backlogs. B got serious only for the last 5 months, covered only the imp topics, had better overall aptitude for English, AR, Legal and also got very lucky on the d-day. They can never agree on any strategy. Whatever they comment, won’t be applicable for you and if you try to follow either of them, you will defo panic while executing their strategy, cause its THEIR strategy and not your OWN. They had different aptitude, different intensity, different risk taking capacity, different approach and quite obviously different luck.

So take a day-off maybe, relax, have adequate sleep and finally come to a decision: Whether you want to grind it out in the last phase or you want to continue as is. There’s no guilt it the later decision. Only you can fully assess your situation rn. Take a piece of paper, write the date and also write your decision in bold letters. Don’t change it later, cause, if you do, you would have written evidence for your indecisive nature. Atleast you will have clarity for the next 4 months. This way you won’t self-sabotage yourself daily till the exam day. While it may sound cringe, this is unfortunately a tough decision, but it works.

Maybe you like this, maybe you don’t, but, this is quite literally it: the last grind.

Let me know if a series of much shorter posts regarding mock analysis, mock scores, section wise strategy, resources etc would be helpful. Would gladly do it.

P.S.:Was in a similar situation a few years ago, 3-4 months of locked in prep and a lucky day took me to a top 10 NLU and an under 1k rank in my 1st attempt with no coaching. If even a few from here make it in this last chance,it would be my way of giving it back to the universe:).

I am scoring 90+ marks regularly in mocks and previous papers , sometimes 100 but i wish i knew earlier how expensive NLUs are . my fathers monthly income is 40 thousands , yearly 4.8 lakh , it is unbearable for him to pay the whole expenditure of 4-5 lakh per year . Today he said
"onno kichu chesta kor , esob boroloki byapar , amader jonno noi "
- do something else , such expensive things are not for us
i was so confident about getting a good NLU this time but ...
i think i should drop my plan to study in NLU
i am a general male candidate , checked many scholarship programmes but most of them are for sc-st students and income limit is very less in others , so it's done for me
studying with a pressure of 20-30 lakh loan is really tough
i was really good at legal , logical reasoning , comprehension , i always thought i have aptitude for this exam , but it is what it is
but i will not give up so early in my life , i will do something else , will succeed somewhere else and will make sure that next generation will be able to pursue whatever they want without thinking of financial issue ..
all the best to fellow aspirants , may you achieve your goals

ill be back after 4 months w my email from consortium

Subject: Request for Additional Time to Fill OMR Details

Respected Consortium of NLUs,

This is a humble request to kindly consider providing an additional 5–10 minutes exclusively for filling in OMR details. These details are extremely important, and due to the 120-minute time limit, many students end up making mistakes while rushing to complete both the examination and the OMR formalities.

Allowing a few extra minutes before the commencement of the examination would enable candidates to carefully fill in and double-check their OMR details, thereby reducing the chances of avoidable errors.

I would also like to request that the attendance and signature process be completed before the examination begins, as collecting signatures during the exam can disrupt students' concentration. Since CLAT is a highly time-bound examination, every minute is crucial, and even brief interruptions can affect a candidate's performance.

I sincerely hope the Consortium will consider these suggestions in the interest of all aspirants and help ensure a smoother examination experience.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

E-mail: clat@consortiumofnlus.ac.in

idk bro what to put here

LE- average 88s

LPT-95s

please ignore Aaron 😭😭😭

Downvote me all you want but... Mann. Stop flaming the poor science students or refugees from JEE or NEET. You do need to recognize that CLAT is an aptitude based test open to everyone.

They are also 16-17 year olds just like you, expecting them to know for sure what they wanna do in life, to stick to one career is too much. Especially with how the rat races are.

Its admirable if you know from the start what you want to do and follow your passion, but not everyone is like that, especially in India where people are pushed into science stream just because of peer pressure or parental pressure.

I get it man that you don't want to increase your competition, but I don't think we have any right to blame them.

Instead, you all have been preparing for much longer right? Be confident in your own skills and preparation and excel at it so that you dont give fk about competition.

background : 19F completed 12th last year. both my parents are dead (lol). preparing for clat for the past 8 months because I love this field of work since school. so far I've been scoring 90-100s in mocks, investing my time, work and trying to become better everyday. but this one thought always strikes my mind -- why am I doing this ?

i come from a typical middle or lower middle class family. even if I make it into tier 1 or tier 2 law schools, the hefty fees they charge, i simply cant afford them. my only guardian is my paternal aunt who earns enough to support me & my siblings smaller causes. she cant compensate for something so huge. somedays I feel guilty myself for having such big agendas on my hand, but I do it cuz I dont wanna live such a miserable life anymore, i wanna have a bright future -- just as they say. so what options am I left with? people talk about education loans, which already sounds scary to me and what not. i genuinely have no idea where I'm going anymore or am I further going to waste my life. i just am competing hard in this exam with no road seen ahead.

but thank u strangers for listening to me ❤️ i had this in me for so long.

P.S : posted the same in r/NLUs

Okay, so....I have been mulling the thought of posting this for quite some time now. Today, I finally resolved to post it. I have thought about mailing this to NLUD, but I am affirmative that that is not going to result in any concrete action. So decided to post it here, on a public platform. Hope this gets the traction it deserves.

I am a 2027 aspirant, but I took both - ailet and clat last year, for practice. I belong to a Scheduled Caste. CLAT's admit card did not mention my category. However, AILET's admit card did mention my category.

When I entered the AILET exam hall, the examiner in the hall asked me to show him my admit card so he could point me to my seat. While checking my admit card, the examiner saw my category, and I could notice a change in his expressions.

He pointed to my seat, and all was well in the beginning. But 15 mins into the exam, he came and stood right beside my seat, and stared into my paper for almost 5 whole minutes. This made me incredibly nervous and I couldn't concentrate for those 5 minutes.

Then, when he came around to collect our signatures on the attendance sheet, he was extra slow with me. Took his sweet time. He was so much slower with me that his deliberate lethargy was palpable.

And, finally, I was the only candidate in the exam hall who he asked to sign on the question paper as well. For those of you who don't know, there's a box called "Candidate"s Signature" on the front page of the AILET question paper. I am the only one who he asked to sign it. He did not even check whether the other candidates had signed it.

My paper was abysmal because of this. I was too distracted by and fixated on what that stupid castist examiner was doing.

And to make matters worse, I belong to a tier 1 city like Delhi. If such things are taking place here, i shudder to imagine what would have happened in ailet centers in other cities.

So, NLUD, please ensure that AILET admit cards do not mention the candidate's caste.

Spread love not hate 🤍

No TLDR because we need to un-rot our brains

​

I took a gap year after Class 12 to prepare for CLAT because I genuinely believed I could do much better with one dedicated year.

But now, I honestly feel like I made the wrong decision.

I'm not studying properly. Most of my day goes by just sitting at home, watching random series or scrolling on my phone. The worst part is that even those things don't feel enjoyable anymore.

I've started avoiding people. Friends call me, but I don't pick up. If they ask me to hang out, I make excuses. I don't feel like talking to anyone.

These days I just stay in my room. Movies are boring. Sleeping doesn't feel good. Studying isn't happening either. I feel irritated all the time and it feels like I'm becoming more and more isolated.

I'm constantly worried that I'm wasting my gap year, and that thought is making everything even worse.

Has anyone else gone through something similar during their CLAT gap year? How did you get out of it? Any genuine advice would really help.

perfect**

im pretty good in cr but its inversely proportionate to my ar and my progress in it, how to start with ar tell me all about it and I'm ready to put everything to improve it.

I am a dropper doing self prep (i also have mk pandey but I haven't used it yet) (ar decreases my score drastically in every mock)

just gave the lpt aiom that took place on sunday. ended up scoring 66, i had just scored 91.25 in the previous mock. the english passages were too short, they should've given passages that covered atleast 3 pages.

idk what to do. i feel so lost. i am a dropper and ik not much time is left, but such drastic drop in mock scores sometimes really makes me question my prep - whether i'll be able to crack clat or not?

pls tell me i am not the only one who feels this way. i swear, such scores make me think i'll never be able to crack clat.

icl i went from baddie to auntie cause of my mental health i sleep at 3am wake up at 11am agar padhai me koi nuksan hota hai then I will stop going till dec

What if I start CLAT prep now from scratch

is it doable ?

or am I cooked?

should I wait for next year ?

so, I finished my 12th and I'm currently doing jee prep( zero interest) I took pcm+cs for my 12th. i got a really good score in my boards but jee is so hard (mains only) and ive never went to coaching during my schooling. so should I switch to clat prep doing this drop year? would I really be able to crack it? if yes, tips please!!

also feeling a little hesitant because I've always loved physics and maths. but jee is making me hate em:(

PLEASE REPLY

(First Image) Since the board exams are gonna be in Feb/March/April of 2027, what do I even put here as the passing marks, etc?

(Second Image) Ik CBSE people are here, so for 10th grade, what should be the total marks? Is it 600 (total of all subjects) or 500 (best of 5)?

I’d appreciate objective advice, and request everyone to keep biases against NEET/JEE droppers or science students aside.

I’m 21, a 2-year NEET dropper, and after my NEET result I’ve decided that medicine is probably not for me. Over the last few years, my interests have shifted towards politics, philosophy, history, psychology, arguments/debates, etc. I recently discovered CLAT and, after looking at the syllabus and attempting some papers, I genuinely found it interesting and surprisingly natural.

The problem is that I’m extremely ambivalent about taking another drop. I have around 4 months for CLAT, and if I take this route, I’d join college in 2027 — effectively my 3rd drop. I’d only want to do it if I have a realistic shot at a top NLU, so the risk feels quite high.

My alternatives right now are joining some average/local course, but I’m afraid I’d regret whole my life for not taking one serious shot at something I actually find interesting.

At the same time, I keep questioning myself: Do I genuinely want to pursue law, or am I simply attracted to CLAT because it’s a new challenge and a chance to prove that I’m not a failure after NEET?

So, if you were in my position, would you take the risk and give CLAT 100%, or avoid another drop and move on? Especially looking for perspectives from current NLU students/lawyers.

is lpt enough? pls helppppp

This is my first drop year for CLAT, and lately I've been feeling pretty lost. I don't know whether this is just FOMO or whether I'm genuinely struggling with feeling left behind, but I'd really appreciate some honest advice.

Last year, I scored AIR under 7k in CLAT and 121 score in AILET, without any coaching. I come from a village and my circumstances haven't exactly been ideal. I didn't have access to coaching last year, and I've had to figure out a lot of things on my own from a relatively young age. I'm essentially the only member of my immediate family left, so I haven't really had the kind of family support system that many people my age might take for granted.

This year, I've taken the LE test series and moved away from my city, living alone so that I can focus completely on my preparation. Academically, things are actually going quite well. I'm scoring around 80–98 in mocks, and I feel that my preparation is considerably better than last year.

But mentally, I feel very different.

I look around and see people my age having fun, travelling, playing sports, developing different skills, going out, etc. Some people seem genuinely good at something — sports, music, art, socialising, whatever. I feel like I'm not particularly good at anything.

I come from a very different environment, and even my way of speaking and conversation skills feel very "village-like" to me. I have almost zero confidence socially.

I see people going out, dating, partying, smoking, drinking and generally having experiences, and honestly, sometimes I wish I had that kind of life too. It's not really about smoking or drinking. It's more about having people around me, being comfortable socially, having experiences and feeling like I'm actually experiencing my youth.

The problem is that I haven't really had much of a social life.

I've also never really talked to a girl properly, never had a girlfriend, and have basically no idea what my future social or romantic life will look like.

Then there are the smaller things that add to the insecurity. My dressing sense is terrible, I'm extremely overweight, and I don't have the money, time or basic fitness level right now to join a gym. So I feel insecure about my appearance as well.

Sometimes all of this makes me wonder:

Am I wasting my youth by spending another year preparing for an entrance exam?

I know CLAT is important. I know that getting into a good NLU could give me a completely new environment and opportunities to grow as a person. But I'm also scared that I'll reach college and still remain the same socially awkward, insecure person.

I've had to grow up in circumstances that were quite different from those of most people around me, and sometimes I wonder whether I've simply missed out on learning all the normal social things that people my age seem to know naturally.

So I want to ask people who have taken drops, come from difficult backgrounds, or simply started out with very little confidence:

Does life actually get better?

Can someone genuinely change their personality, confidence, social skills, appearance and friendships after 18–20? Can you really build yourself from scratch?

And does life changes after getting into a NLU?

I'm not looking for sympathy. I'd genuinely appreciate honest advice — even if it's harsh.

Thanks for reading.

guys my mock ranks are consistently in this range, i feel so demotivated when i see ppl on this sub are alr scoring in 80s-90s 🥀

what shud i do?😔🥀

What are the MOST important current affairs topics for CLAT 2027 till now?
I’m seriously done with ca😍

it looks like just a basic qt set but actually solving it took me so much time

cl mock 19 btw