Study Plan for CLAT: Monthly Breakup

Do we hear you’ve decided to go for CLAT or Common Law Admission test? Good choice! Are you wondering what your next step should be? Fret not! Oliveboard has got your back. Remember Buster Scruggs and the famous “…when you’re unarmed, your tactics might gonna be downright Archimedean.”? Let’s get you the correct ammunition by forming a study plan for CLAT with a focus on the sectional breakup. Remember that the first step to cracking any competitive examination is having a set study map before you even begin combined with resolve, determination, focus and perseverance for the entire preparation cycle. 

Note – This is a study plan for CLAT for 12 months. Customise it according to the time span you have at hand (for ex, 8 months, 6 months, 4 months, etc).

Let’s crack CLAT the “STORKS” way, i.e., let’s “Make a plan, stick to the plan, always deliver!”

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. 

Syllabus of CLAT – Study Plan for CLAT

Section	Nature of the Passage	Type of Questions
English Language	450 words long Passages derived from contemporary or historically significant fiction and non-fiction writing.	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 used in the passage.
Current Affairs (including GK)	450 words long passages derived from news, journalistic sources and other non-fiction writing.	Contemporary events of significance from India and the world;Arts and culture;International affairs; andHistorical events of continuing significance.
Legal Reasoning	450 word long passages related to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters, public policy questions or moral philosophical enquiries.	Identify and infer the rules and principles set out in the passage;Apply such rules and principles to various fact situations; andUnderstand how changes to the rules or principles may alter their application to various fact situations.
Logical Reasoning	300 word long “short” passages to assess your mental ability.	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.
Quantitative Techniques	“Short” sets of facts or propositions, graphs, or other textual, pictorial or diagrammatic numerical information representations.	Derive, infer, and manipulate numerical information set out in such passages, graphs, or other representations; andApply various 10th standard mathematical operations on such information, including from areas such as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation

Sectional Breakup

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

Monthly breakup #2 months

Spend the entire 2 months preparing for the rest of the time you’ve for preparation. Abraham Lincoln says, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Why? Otherwise, you’ll find it takes much longer. Where should you invest this time?

1. Go through the syllabus once daily. By the end of this month, you should know the syllabus like the back of your hand. 
2. Solve full-length Previous Year Question-paper available online. Solving at least 5 should suffice. This will help you assess your level in each subject. Remember that CLAT is an aptitude test and not a test of your prior knowledge. Either you have got the aptitude or you don’t. And in both cases, there is nothing to be worried about. You’ve enough time to build on.  You can also attempt one mock test here.
3. Once you know where you stand at the entire examination front, start solving 1 sectional test for each subject. This will help you assess your strengths and weaknesses within the section.
4. Start developing the habit of reading if you haven’t already. For starters, begin reading the English newspaper daily. You could choose from either The Hindu or Indian Express and eventually expand upon reading The Mint, Financial Times, Frontline, New York Times, etc.
5. This is the time you should begin expanding your vocabulary as well. Remember “Step 1 – the Syllabus”? Revisit and underline buzzwords like Art and Culture, Finance, non-fiction, public policy, etc. You should start building your vocabulary under each of these themes – 
   1. Make notes while reading the newspaper.
   2. You can use online Flashcard making tools for faster revision.
   3. Use this book called “Word Power Made Easy” by Norman Lewis.
6. You can also begin practising the relevant chapters from Class Xth NCERT for Mathematics.

Tip – Customise this 1 month’s duration, according to the time you’re left with. For example, if you’ve 6 months in hand, this one-month routine should be crammed into 15 days. 

By the end of this period you should –

1. Know the syllabus by heart and understand the examination inside out.
2. Know your strong and weak subjects. Know your weaknesses within the section as well. Depending on the SWOT analysis you should have figured out the exact sources, materials and books you’re going to refer to (up to 1-2 materials per section).
3. Have a headstart on a reading habit and technical knowledge as well as vocabulary necessary for enhanced comprehension of questions.

Monthly breakup #next 8 months

Now that you understand the demands of the examination, the next 8 months should go into a study-test-revise pattern. Let us break it down for you.

Study

Set a fixed number of hours you can dedicate each day for the next 8 months. Allot a section of your time to subjects as per your strengths and weaknesses within them. Assuming that you’re handling your boards as well, the following can look like your time break up for one day –

Activity	Preferred time-slot
Reading and making notes out of the Newspaper	01:00 – 01:30 hours
Vocabulary building & revision of Word Stock	30 minutes
Grammar	30 minutes
Quants	1-hour
Reasoning	1-hour
Static GK (topic wise)	30 minutes
Revision	1 hour
Total	5 hours 30 mins to 6 hours

There are some study techniques, such as Pomodoro, Blocked practice, etc that you can apply for achieving desired results with the correct study plan for CLAT.

Test

“Practice makes a man perfect”. And continuously testing yourself makes practice perfect. How?

Test	Ideal Day
Topic-wise test	Ater completion of each Topic
Sectional test	Every weekend (of as many sections as you’ve touched upon that week)
Full-length test	For the first four-month, one each month-end. For the last 4 months, once every fortnight.

Remember that you don’t need to know everything before attempting a mock. It is much more a test of time management, strategy making and stress handling abilities than of knowledge. The better you are at applying what you have learnt, the more you score.

Revise

The step of revision goes parallel with studying and testing. Your revision should be focused on 3 laps – every day, every week and every month. 

• Dedicate at least one hour every day to revising all that you’ve read the entire day. This will help you synergize the study and apply it better. 
• Every weekend, before taking the sectional test, you should make it a point to revise the entire week’s worth of syllabus. 
• Next would be revising all that you’ve read so far before taking a full-length test.

This is because reading a subject or topic once does not help you retain it. 

Monthly breakup #last 2 months

Now this is the most crucial phase. You can make no mistakes here. 

By now, you should understand your strengths and weaknesses, viz –

• know which sections you’re good at and what topics trip you the most;
• Know whether you can take an entire paper within the time limit satisfactorily;
• How many questions should you attempt to minimize negative marking;
• Safe sectional strategy for each subject and overall paper solving strategy.

These two months should ideally go into sharpening your test-taking and time management abilities. Keep revising and applying your knowledge while strengthening the rest. This is the time you prepare yourself for the d-day.

This was the study plan for CLAT along with the monthly breakup. Stay tuned for sectional strategies. Ciao!