How to prepare for the Logical Reasoning Section of CLAT?

How to prepare for the Logical Reasoning Section of CLAT? – As per the syllabus listed on Consortium website, the Logical Reasoning section of CLAT contains about 28-32 questions out of 150. This means that the section constitutes roughly 20% of the paper, which is a huge deal. Hence, it is essential that 

Now, scoring at least 25+ in the logical reasoning section of CLAT is essential to reach a decent score and rank overall. Now, while the Logical Reasoning section of CLAT 2022 (UG), as per the prescribed syllabus, might be very different from previous years’ papers, some questions from the older formats may still be included – such as logic games or syllogisms. 

Understanding CLAT

Common Law Admission Test, or CLAT, is a centralized national level entrance test for admissions to an integrated (5 years) undergraduate degree in Law (BA LLB, BBA LLB, BSc LLB, etc) in twenty-two National Law Universities (NLU) in India (except NLU Delhi which conducts a separate entrance, AILET). The test can be taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade and is conducted by the Consortium of NLUs nationally, every year. 

Generally, the battle of CLAT is a 120-minute field wherein the candidate has to solve 150 questions spread across five areas – English Language, Current Affairs (including General Knowledge), Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques. Each question is a one-marker objective type. A negative marking of 0.25 mark per wrong answer has also been kept. 

Subject Areas	Approx. number of questions (Weightage)
English Language	28-32 questions or roughly 20% of the paper
Current Affairs, including General Knowledge	35-39 questions, or roughly 25% of the paper
Legal Reasoning	35-39 questions, or roughly 25% of the paper
Logical Reasoning	28-32 questions, or roughly 20% of the paper
Quantitative Technique	13-17 questions, or roughly 10% of the paper

As per the Consortium website and notification issued for CLAT 2022 – 

• There is no upper age limit for UG Programme via CLAT.
• There is a requirement for a minimum percentage of marks in the qualifying examination (i.e., 10+2 or an equivalent examination). The notification mandates that the candidates must have secured:
  • Forty-five per cent (45%) marks or its equivalent grade in case of candidates belonging to General / OBC / PWD / NRI / PIO / OCI categories; and
  • Forty Percent (40%) marks or equivalent in the case of candidates belonging to SC/ST categories.

 Logical Reasoning of CLAT

As per the syllabus listed on Consortium website, the Logical Reasoning section of CLAT 2022 will include a series of short passages of about 300 words each. The Logical Reasoning section of CLAT contains about 28-32 questions out of 150 or roughly 20% of the paper

Each passage will be followed by one or more questions that will require you to:

• Recognize 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;
• 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.

Resources to prepare for the logical reasoning section of CLAT

Remember that as per the trends being followed in the CLAT examination since 2020, the logical reasoning section of CLAT is a test of aptitude and skills that are necessary for legal education. The shift is from testing just the prior knowledge or rote learning & retention/recall capacity towards evaluating the comprehension and reasoning skills and abilities of the candidates. 

As per the Learning Tools and Materials listed on the Consortium Website, following resources can be especially helpful while building your approach to this section. First of, the questions in this section will be based on material drawn from sources that include 

1. opinion and editorial pieces from newspapers and magazines and 
2. essays on moral philosophy available online and in various books

Some passages will be created specifically for the exam. Examples of source material include 

1. Books like 
   • Ethics in the real world
   • eighty-two brief essays on things that matter by Peter Singer as well as 
2. Articles and editorials like 
   • “Reverse Gear” taken from The Economist a leading international newspaper which is also available online
   • other examples include “History for Health” published by the Telegraph and “Where I am”, an editorial published in the Indian Express.

Clearly, this section is meant to test and cultivate your capacity to identify and understand whether a proposition is ultimately true or untrue. You will be expected to –

• understand its constituents,
• are the facts presented connected to the argument made,
• what reasons are there to support or weaken an argument,
•  are they sufficient,
• what are the consequences of the kind of reasoning presented in the passage and so on 

Few questions might alsol follow the old format which is based more on the kind of logic present in puzzles like 

1. Identifying blood relations,
2. Making family trees,
3. Number and alphabet series,
4. Circular Arrangements,
5. Direction sense,
6. Coding Decoding,
7. Analogies,
8. Clocks and calendars, etc.

These questions can be practiced from a number of sources (pick one or maximum two per topic, out of the listed) –

• Analytical Reasoning (English) by MK Pandey.
• A Modern Approach to Logical Reasoning by RS Aggarwal.
• Arihant’s A New Approach to Verbal and Analytical Reasoning.

Top these resources with plenty of practice and following brownies –

• Mock tests – The learning of concepts from all the materials and resources has to be coupled up with practice and a good amount of it. Use sectional tests after you’re done reading the concepts for every topic. Add solving mock tests to the mix and you’re golden. Full-length mock tests are especially helpful for improving time management. Check this out! 
• The previous year’s question papers – Coupling your conceptual clarity with practice from PYQs or previous year’s question papers can prove very helpful.

Preparation Strategy for the logical reasoning Section of CLAT

Do you remember chapter 5 of “Honeydew”, the language textbook for Standard 8th CBSE, titled “The Summit Within” by Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia? It enlists three qualities necessary to be exhibited by a person aspiring to climb a summit – endurance, persistence and willpower. The same applies to cracking the logical reasoning section of CLAT. Let’s break it down for you!

Tips for prep

• Clubbing prep for entire CLAT paper – Given the fact that the logical reasoning section of CLAT 2022 is going to be closely related to the English Language and Legal Reasoning sections, like the trends followed during CLAT conducted in the years 2020 and 2021, it would be a good idea to modify your preparation strategy so that you prepare for these three sections together. 
  • Very often, the same, or similar sources are used by the question setters for questions in this section as in the English Language and Legal Reasoning sections – such as opinion and editorial pieces from newspapers. Hence, making the maximum out of the sources you read can be very helpful.
  • Try creating different versions of a principle or facts and ask fellow aspirants to determine how they might affect the main argument or outcome of a passage or a question.
• Stay in tune with trends & updates – It is always a good idea to practice with past years’ papers, especially in the logical reasoning section. Solving them ensures that you’re in tune with the trends of the questions asked, which areas and important, which topics yield the maximum number of questions, etc. Use past years papers to your benefit while preparing for CLAT.
• Seek you friends help – Remember, the more you debate points with others, the greater the variety of arguments and reasoning styles you will encounter. This can and will greatly assist you with your preparations for the logical reasoning section of CLAT.

Tips for d-day

• As per past year’s papers analysis, arguments form a major part of the logical reasoning section of CLAT. Arguments are usually sets of facts or pieces of evidence (called ‘premises’) which support a ‘conclusion’. These premises and conclusions together form arguments. Hence, utilise the past year’s papers to carefully identify the various premises and conclusions in the passage.
• Further, you should also learn how to determine whether the piece has an overarching theme, purpose, or conclusion. You should be able to quickly answer questions that require you to identify the passage’s major subject or conclusion, as well as those that ask you to identify arguments in support of or against the author’s arguments, with this knowledge in hand.
• Some questions may require you to assume certain things to be true, even though you know they are wrong or contradict the information in the passage. In such cases, it is critical that you precisely follow the directions in the question; remember, the question setters are testing your ability to read and grasp the material and instructions in this part, not your prior knowledge. 

For more help with your CLAT preparation, tune in to Oliveboard. For tips and tricks on preparing for other law entrances, check this. Ciao!