CLAT: All about this law admission test

Every year the CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) Consortium partners with the Bar Council of India to conduct an all-India law entrance exam for aspiring lawyers.  

CLAT 2022 registration is tentatively scheduled to begin from the first or second week of January 2022 and the entrance exam will probably take place in April 2022. The total number of seats for CLAT 2022 is approximately 2622.  

Candidates who wish to secure admission in 5-year integrated courses like B.A. LLB. (Hons), BBA LLB. (Hons) or BSc. LLB. (Hons) in the 22 law colleges across the country affiliated to the National Law University (NLU) need to sit for this entrance test. In fact, around 70 autonomous colleges who aren’t under the jurisdiction of NLU also accept CLAT scores for admission in their respective colleges. Once selected, the candidates will need to appear for CLAT counselling. Here’s everything else you need to know about the law entrance exam. 

Eligibility Criteria 

• Candidates need to be Indian nationals with valid identity proofs. 
• Candidates should have passed 10+2 board or other equivalent exams with minimum 45%.  
• Candidates who belong to the SC/ST categories need to have passed their class 12 finals with minimum 40% marks. 

• Candidates who are yet to appear in their school final exams may also appear for this test. However, if selected, they must fulfil all the other criteria and present their final marksheets at the time of admission.  
• There’s no upper age limit for this entrance test. 

Exam pattern 
This national level entrance exam for law has a single paper with five sections. The topics included are: Legal reasoning, logical reasoning, English language proficiency (including comprehension), quantitative techniques and current affairs (including general knowledge). The syllabus for CLAT is the same as any recognised 10+2 curriculum. 

Marking scheme 
There is a total of 200 multiple-choice questions (MCQs), 50 questions each for both legal reasoning and current affairs, 40 marks each for both English and logical reasoning and 20 marks for quantitative techniques. 1 mark will be awarded for each correct answer, and there will negative marking of 0.25 for each wrong answer. The total marks are 200.  

Mode and duration 
CLAT is an offline pen-and-paper exam with OMR sheets. It is scheduled for 2 hours. Candidates can write the paper only in English.