Nearly 6 weeks after announcing a new pattern for the CLAT 2020 exam, the consortium finally released the syllabus and sample questions for each of the 5 sections. The number of questions has been reduced to 150, with the time remaining the same at 2 hours. All questions will be Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) as before, with a negative marking of -0.25 for incorrect attempts.
Here’s the section-wise split of the number of questions. Although the number of questions has been reduced, the overall weightage of each section remains more or less the same as earlier.
Subject / Section | No. Of Questions | Approx Weightage |
English Language | 28 – 32 Qs | 20% of the paper |
Current Affairs, including GK | 35 – 39 Qs | 25% of the paper |
Legal Reasoning | 35 – 39 Qs | 25% of the paper |
Logical Reasoning | 28 – 32 Qs | 20% of the paper |
Quantitative Techniques | 13 – 17 Qs | 10% of the paper |
Here’s a brief overview of each of the five sections, and what students can expect from it. Instead of testing students on their prior knowledge and memory, the exam will focus more on testing them on their reading, comprehension and reasoning skills. However, some prior knowledge will definitely be needed for some sections like Current affairs etc. Questions in all the sections will be based on a passage or some given information, and answers need to be derived, either directly or indirectly, from the given data.
1. English Language |
Types of Passages: Passages can be derived from any fictional or non-fictional writings on contemporary or historically significant topics. This section will test students on their reading skills, and how well they are able to grasp the main idea of the passage. Questions could be based on drawing conclusions/inferences; understanding the different viewpoints given; summarizing the passage; meanings of the words/phrases used in the passage. |
2. Current Affairs, including GK |
Type of Passages: Passages can be derived from newspapers, journals and other non-fictional writings. Any legal happenings currently in news could also be tested. This section will test students on their overall awareness & understanding of the important happenings around them. A passage will be given for reference and questions will be asked on that event described in the passage. Please note that the answers need not be present in the passage and can be answered only if students have read the news item earlier. The passages and questions could be based on the significant current events in India and the World. Although static GK may not be tested as a random memory based question, any static knowledge related to current events can always be tested. This is one area where ALPians have the greatest edge over other aspirants. At Abhyaas Law Prep, we have always emphasized on the importance of reading the background story and information, rather than merely memorizing questions and answers. Any question (current or static) related to the event described in the passage can be asked. |
3. Legal Reasoning |
Types of Passages: The passages may relate to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters and/or public policy and governance. This section will test students on their ability to understand rules and principles and apply them in different situations. Although a prior knowledge of law is not needed, a general awareness about law and the current matters of significance will help students to interpret the situation better and thus help them apply the same to different scenarios. The major change in this section is that the rules are not listed separately but need to be inferred from the given passage. Tweaking of the rule and application to other situations could also be tested. |
4. Logical Reasoning |
This section will test students on their ability to recognize arguments, its premise and conclusions. Understanding the patterns of reasoning used, identifying any contradictions or flaws in the reasoning, drawing inferences from the passage and applying them to different situations etc, will be the key to doing well in this section. Based on the sample paper released, the focus of this section seems to be predominantly on critical reasoning based questions, and not much on analytical reasoning. This trend is similar to the initial years of CLAT. Whether Analytical reasoning based questions have been entirely done away with, is difficult to say. So it’s best to wait for the entire model paper and learning material to be sure. |
5. Quantitative Techniques |
Types of Passages: The data in this section could be given in the form of passages, graphs, pie charts or other diagrammatic representation of numerical data. This section is typically going to be Data Interpretation. It will test students on their ability to understand numerical data given in different forms and apply basic calculations on it to answer the questions. The calculations will include the basic 10th standard maths topics like percentages, averages, ratios, etc. So again, it is still similar to the earlier pattern in terms of the topics and level, the change is only in terms of how the questions will be asked. |
Clearly, the new CLAT pattern lays a strong emphasis on reading speed and comprehension skills, not just in the English section, but in the overall paper as well. This is something that we, at Abhyaas Law Prep, have always focused on. ReadMark, our proprietary web app that we have made available over the last 2 years has benefitted students to improve their vocabulary and comprehension capability. We advise students to continue to make the best use of it.
We have already modified our program to include all aspects of the new pattern. Workshops based on the new CLAT pattern will be conducted, in addition to the classes covering the basic concepts. The first CLAT exam on the new pattern will be released on 12th January 2020. ALPians can be rest assured that they will be provided with the best quality material and practice of the new pattern and question types, and thus be able to handle CLAT 2020 with ease!
Do post your queries in the discussion below the post and we will get back to you at the earliest.
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Sir/Ma'am, then should I stop reading GK compendiums and focus on current affair sources, as I will appear for CLAT in 2021?
Please do not stop reading or preparing for Static GK entirely. We will not suggest that, as there are other exams like SLAT AILET MHCET etc that test for static GK as well. However the overall focus on static GK can be much less as compared to earlier. Focus definitely has to be more on Current Affairs.
Hope this helps.