Concentrate on time management and mock tests

Amit Poddar

With barely three months to go for CLAT’17, serious aspirants should start burning the midnight oil. Students already preparing for a year or so may have a slight advantage as compared to the ones planning to start the preparations after the Class XII Board exams. The key to success would be to follow a regular study plan immediately  rather than waiting for the Boards to end. Even 15-20 minutes daily should be good enough till March end and then a more focused study plan of 6-8 hrs till the D-day — May 14.

This online exam demands a good mix of speed and accuracy as it tests five broad areas. Answering 200 questions in 120 minutes with negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer becomes very challenging. The cut off for the tier 1 law schools is normally around 140+ and to reach anywhere close to this figure, one has to attempt more than 160-170 questions with 80-90 per cent accuracy. 

This test is definitely about informed decision making rather than wild guess works. Intelligent guess work may work sometimes for English section where vocabulary and grammar questions can be solved using root methods and common sense. 

Apart from these two areas, last year this section had reading comprehensions and logical conclusions questions. 

These are clearly skill- based areas and the aspirants need to practice a lot of questions to reach a good accuracy level.

General knowledge and current affairs questions can be dealt with properly, only if a student has given time to daily newspaper and magazines. GK capsules and ppts. on current events really come handy for the students and keep their interest in this particular area during the preparation. This section particularly can help students gather a lot of marks with very less time consumed.

The numerical ability section is relatively easier and getting all the 20 questions correct may not be very difficult. 

It is the Legal Aptitude and Logical Reasoning section which requires thorough preparation as these are relatively newer areas for most of the students. The legal GK questions made a comeback last year and being thorough with the constitutional laws, maxims, etc. may require some real hard work.

As time management is very crucial in this online exam, students should take 10-12 mocks to get the feel of the actual exam. Analysing the mock test performance and identifying the strengths and weaknesses should be the next step.

Leaving questions which are beyond the abilities of an aspirant can save the much needed time, which can thereby be used in solving other doable questions. This habit is something very different from the board exams where a student is advised to attempt every question. There has to be a clear 

cut difference which aspirants should keep in their mind about strategies to be used in this exam CLAT. And a rigid mindset can be very detrimental.

— The writer is Senior Regional Head, T.I.M.E. New Delhi