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DIMAPUR — Like many other class 12 students, Trisha Beria too delved into exploring career options after completing her exams. With a deep-seated interest in political studies and social science, law naturally piqued her attention as the clear choice.
Fueled by her aspiration to work in the social sector, law emerged as a field that would not only offer her this opportunity but also ensure a stable income. Following passing out from Delhi Public School and Don Bosco School, Guwahati, the 21-year-old successfully passed the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in her second attempt.
CLAT is a centralised national-level entrance test for admissions to 25 National Law Universities (NLUs).
In an interview with Eastern Mirror, Beria, a law student at Gujarat National Law University, offers insights into the CLAT for aspiring students.
Could you provide an overview of the CLAT pattern to help aspirants understand it better?
CLAT is a 2 hour-long test with 120 questions divided across 5 sections – English (reading comprehension), legal reasoning, logical reasoning, current affairs, and quantitative aptitude. You get 1 mark for every correct answer and a deduction of 0.25 every incorrect answer. The exam is only conducted in English and tests your reading and comprehension skills the most.
What are some effective strategies one can adopt?
The most important strategy would be developing a habit of reading. If you see a CLAT paper you will notice that English, legal reasoning and logical reasoning – all three sections test your reading comprehension. Reading the newspaper every day, specifically editorials, is greatly beneficial as it helps you improve your comprehension skills and helps you with current affairs. Other than that, the strategy that worked for me was taking a lot of mock tests. Towards the last two months of my preparation, I would take at least two mock tests per week. This helps you track your improvement and you know where you stand.
Can you share some methods for individuals to enhance their aptitude skills?
While I don’t believe aptitude is something that can be built over a day or even a year, again the aptitude tested in CLAT is limited to your comprehension skills. So that just comes with reading as much as you can. Other than that, sectional tests are something you can go for if you want to focus on aptitude. You can use CAT material as well to prepare for the aptitude as well as the level is a little higher from CLAT.
Benefits of mock tests, where to find sources and how to use them proficiently.
Mock tests are extremely helpful as they help you keep a track of your progress, other than that, they are essential for you to learn time management, so that you know how to divide your time across sections during the main test. Another tip would be to also give these mocks from 2:00-4:00 p.m., which is the time slot for CLAT. It conditions your mind. Also because current affairs (CA) are a very wide area, mocks introduce you to a lot of new sets of CA questions.
You should be analyzing your performance after every test so as to know which sections you are performing well in, where you need improvement and then use this to develop a strategy for the actual test. Another aspect to focus on during mocks is increasing the number of questions you attempt. Due to the limited time available during their initial mocks they would not be able to attempt a lot of questions, so with every mock, aspirants must try to increase their attempts.
For sources, ‘Career Launcher’ and ‘CLAT Possible’ are both good sources as many aspirants take these, and it gives you a somewhat realistic idea of where you stand. Also do keep in mind that only serious and well-prepared aspirants appear for mocks so your actual rank is generally higher than what people score in your mock tests, so while appearing for mocks their focus should be on consistent improvement.
Can you recommend some strategies to tackle the legal and logical reasoning section?
After a change in CLAT pattern in the year 2020, they have stopped testing your legal knowledge as such. So both legal and logical reasoning sections are also comprehension based only, I can’t emphasize how important it is to develop reading comprehension skills. But other than that, reading about recent Supreme Court judgments and other current affairs related to law is somewhat helpful because for the legal reasoning section, the passages they give are usually whatever has been in the news.
What tips do you have for first-time CLAT takers regarding the quantitative aptitude section?
Basically there are two approaches to the quant section. Many choose to leave the section altogether due to paucity of time and others appear in the section. Quantitative aptitude section can be very time consuming so they can either keep it for the end or if they do attempt it in between other sections, they should set a strict time limit, suppose 20 minutes, so that if they are not done with it in 20 minutes they don’t waste more time on it and move to the other sections.
120 questions for 120 minutes – how can aspirants manage their time?
Firstly, they need to have a strict time division for each section. Current affairs is a section where the least amount of time is taken so I would suggest, they start with that because it gives you a confidence boost when you are done with a section and you have a good amount of time left with you. Other than that the only way to learn time management is by giving a lot of mocks, they can try out different time allocations for sections and then decide on what is working for them. Time division depends on person to person, based on what the strengths and weaknesses are, for example if quant is not your strong suit there is no point wasting your time on that, leave it for the end to come back if you have time left.
What is the internship process at GNLU and how does it benefit students?
The Campus Recruitment Affairs (CRA) committee of GNLU usually helps with internships from the third year. How it works is that the students submit their CVs to the CRA and then they forward it to firms the students are interested in. In first and second year, students have to look for internships themselves, this is also because in the first two years students are expected to intern in district and high court and not firms as such. I don’t want to paint a false picture so I want to let you know that even in the third year, CRA provides internships only to people who have good grades, so students need to focus on maintaining a good SGPA.
What are the most sought-after career paths among students in your campus?
The most sought after path is Corporate Law as it is one of the highest paying jobs out of Law. But there are a lot of people who go for litigation, higher studies, or in the policy sector. Corporate teams also have a high attrition rate as compared to dispute resolution teams in a firm. The firms that come to NLUs for hiring are mostly corporate firms, so that is another reason students who want a secured well-paying job focus on corporate law.
Stress-busters
Watching movies, hanging out with friends, and reading a good book.
Most impactful book you read
Reading 'Women and Power: A Manifesto' by Mary Beard was a turning point for me. It introduced me to feminist theory and sparked my deep interest in women's rights. This book helped me understand myself and the world around me better. It has been incredibly impactful in shaping my views and passions.
Objects of affection on GNLU campus
Meeting amazing people from different parts of the country whom I cherish the most on this campus. This campus has also given me spaces to do things I enjoy such as the art club and the film club.