Common Law Admissions Test: Everything You Need To Know
CLAT- UG is one of the most important entrance exams for admissions to law courses like Five-Year Integrated LL. B program. The exam is primarily conducted for admission to law courses offered by participating NLUs including the top law colleges in India as per National Institutes Ranking Framework (NIRF). However, CLAT scores are also accepted by top private law colleges in India.
Link For Online Application Form 2025
CLAT Highlights 2025
By looking at the current year’s key details, CLAT 2025 can be understood from the table given below:
CLAT is a national-level entrance exam, held in an offline mode. The question paper of CLAT for 5-year law courses is based on five subjects (Quantitative Techniques Legal Reasoning, English Language, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, and Logical Reasoning).
Around 3000 seats at the undergraduate level and around 1,000 seats at the postgraduate level are filled at the participating NLUs through the Centralized Admission Process of seat allotment.
The journey of the Common Law Admission Test began in 2008; it was when the first CLAT was conducted by NLSIU, Bangalore. Earlier to this, all national law universities had their own entrance exam but, after a petition, Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) i.e., law entrance exam for 24 National Law Universities was introduced. It includes courses like B.A LL.B, B. Com LL.B, BBA LL.B, etc., and the courses vary from college to college. CLAT is the preference of the number of students.
CLAT 2025 Important Dates
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Event
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Date
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Commencement Of Application
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15th July 2024
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Deadline Of Application
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15th October 2024
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Exam Date
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1st December 2024
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CLAT 2024 UPDATES
- The number of questions – The number of questions in CLAT has been reduced from 150 to 120
- Change in Exam Pattern – Now, comprehension-based questions will also be asked from Quantitative Techniques, English Language, Current Affairs, Legal Reasoning and Logical Reasoning.
- The CLAT 2024 examination was held in OFFLINE model.
Eligibility Criteria for CLAT
- There will be no upper age limit for UG Programme in CLAT 2025. As regards the minimum percentage of marks in the qualifying examination (i.e., 10+2 or an equivalent examination), the candidates must have secured:
- 45% marks or its equivalent grade in case of candidates belonging to General / OBC / PWD / NRI / PIO / OCI categories.
- 40% marks or equivalent in the case of candidates belonging to SC/ST categories.
- Candidates who are appearing in the qualifying examination in March/April 2025 are also eligible to appear in CLAT 2025 examination. However, they shall be required to prove their passing the qualifying examination at the time of admission, failing which they shall lose their right to be considered for admission.
- The candidate shall submit the result of the qualifying examination (i.e., 10+2) at the time of admission failing which the candidate shall be ineligible for access to the Course.
Introduction and Overview
The UG-CLAT 2025 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 including General Knowledge section.
The UG-CLAT 2025 shall be a 2-hour test, with 120 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 2025, 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; and
- Understand the meaning of various words and phrases in the context that they are 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 to attempt the questions in this section. 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; and
- 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 2025 will include a series of short passages of about 450 words each. Each passage will be followed by one or more questions that will require you to:
- Recognise 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, and how conclusions may be strengthened or weakened as a consequence of an alteration in premises or supporting facts;
- 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 2025 will include short sets of facts or propositions, or other textual representations of numerical information, followed by a series of questions. You will be required to derive information from the passages or questions, and apply mathematical operations on such information.
The questions will require you to:
- Derive, infer, and manipulate numerical information set out in such passages; and
- Apply various 10th standard mathematical operations on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation.
Preparing for the UG-CLAT 2025
The Consortium plans to publish various preparatory materials for the UG-CLAT 2025, including:
- Guides to the question paper and sample questions;
- Model question papers; and
- Instructional materials and exercises for each of the subjects that the UG-CLAT 2025 comprises.
The Consortium will also provide candidates who have successfully completed their application to the UG-CLAT 2025 access to a learning platform where you may access the preparatory materials described above, as well as your scores on various exercises and model question papers. The Consortium shall also organise online sessions for such candidates, in which subject experts shall provide guidance on how best to prepare for each of the sections of the UG-CLAT 2025, and how candidates may approach the questions in each section.
In addition, you should develop your capacity to read and understand bodies of text, ensure you stay abreast of news and current affairs by regularly reading quality newspapers and periodicals, and improve your speed of answering questions on quantitative techniques by practising with materials such as 10th standard mathematics textbooks.
Exam Pattern for CLAT is given below
- Mode of examination: Offline
- Maximum Marks: 120
- Duration of the examination: 2 hours or 120 minutes
- Types of Questions: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
- Marking Scheme: Each question is of 1 mark with 0.25 marks deducted for each incorrect answer.
Brochure Of Universities
Brochure Of National Law School Of India University, Bangaluru
Brochure of NALSAR University Of Law
Brochure Of National Law Institute University, Bhopal
Brochure Of The West Bengal National University Of Judicial Sciences
National Law University, Jodhpur
Hidayatullah National University, Raipur
Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar
Gujarat National Law University, Silvassa
