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The Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT) examination was conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities on 23rd July 2021. The examination is conducted for getting admissions into 22 National Law Universities (NLU’s) across the country.
The overall level of the paper was easy to moderate as compared to the previous year paper in 2020.
SECTION-WISE ANALYSIS
ENGLISH:
There were 30 questions in total in this section. It had 6 passages with 5 questions each. Although the passages were lengthy to read the questions were fairly straightforward and easy to solve.
The types of questions were on expected lines: the main point, pick and choose questions, tone of the author and context-based vocabulary. However, there were no questions on grammar.
The passages were also written in simple language and were around familiar topics like Covid-19, TRC in South Africa and there were literature-based topics like an extract from Sherlock Holmes or a passage on Steve Jobs.
A student who had a good reading speed would have been easily able to complete this section within 30 Minutes with decent accuracy.
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE:
There were 35 questions in this section with 7 passages having 5 questions each. Like the CLAT 2020 paper, the GK question was again not in line with the previous year papers. Most of the topics were relevant in the year 2020.
The topics however were on familiar lines like PM Modi’s visit to Bangladesh, Chinese clash at Galwan Valley, Covid-19. However, Gandhi Peace Prize was an out of the box set.
The section had some irrelevant questions as well like when did the Galwan valley clash take place, the date on which Mujibur Rehman died and which organization won the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2014.
Unlike the 2020 paper, the questions were direct and therefore the ideal time to complete the sections should be 10 minutes.
LEGAL REASONING:
There were 40 questions in the section with 8 passages having 5 questions each. The section could be easily termed as the most ‘reading intensive’ section of the paper. The passages and the questions were very long.
Most of the topics dealt with traditional law school subjects like IPC (consent under Section 90), Torts (Volenti Non- Fit Injuria), Res Judicata, Family Law (Hindu Marriage Act) and Contracts (Communication under ICA).
The language of the text was also pretty complex and unlike the advice of some ‘experts’, the section could not have been solved without prior legal knowledge.
A student with sound knowledge of these topics and good reading speed would hold an edge over his competitors in this section. The students should have given around 35 minutes to the section.
LOGICAL REASONING:
There were 30 questions in this section. There were 6 passages with 5 questions each. Covid-19 was the recurrent theme in the section with 4 passages around it. The remaining passages were about climate change and India’s foreign diplomacy. However, there was no single question from the Analytical Reasoning Part.
The passages in this section were very short barring one passage about Covid-19 and unemployment. The questions were also pretty easy and were on excepted themes like the main point, strengthening and weakening the argument and there were a few comprehension-styled questions as well.
The ideal time to complete the section was around 25 Minutes.
QUANTATIVE APTITUDE:
There were 15 questions in this section. There were 3 sets of questions with 5 questions each. Like last year it was the most controversial section of the paper. Many students claim that the section was full of errors.
All three passages were paragraph based and one set was calculative as well. Most people claim to have wasted their time on this section. However, we feel that the section should not have been given more than 15 minutes.
CONCLUSION
As per the above analysis and the feedback we received from the test-takers English and Logic were the easiest sections of the paper. The GK and QT section had some errors or irrelevant questions making them slightly difficult. The legal section could be termed as moderate as although the passages were lengthy the questions were easier to solve.
A student should have attempted around 120 questions with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The students with fast reading speed and good comprehension skills naturally had an edge over the others.
