GyanCentral

At the outset, let me thank HNLU for (finally) preparing a not-so-controversial paper. Formalities aside, though going by the smart drafting of the notification which contained the paper pattern, it was pretty much certain that HNLU can draft any kind of a paper and they would not come in the firing ling (unlike CLAT 2012), they still deserve full credit for meticulous drafting (I'll come to the Mathematics questions later!) and quality of questions.

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), one of the most important law entrance examinations in India, which helps law aspirants get into the prominent National Law Universities in the country, was conducted today. It is taken after the 12th grade, for admission into the Bachelors degree of Law, and many students across the country write this highly competitive examination every year. GyanCentral's Ushnota Paul spoke to various students across India to find out about their two-hour long CLAT experience.

Let’s cut to the chase right away, shall we? SET and AILET are over, but not entirely behind us. Continuing with the line I have maintained since the very beginning - that both these exams have immense learning potential, as far as CLAT (THE Exam!) is concerned, here I ask - what are the take-aways from these two, which shall stand you in good stead on D-Day?

This anecdote about Holmes and Watson is legion. Once they had gone camping and hiking, and as night drew in, both of them retired to bed. Holmes asked Watson, "What do you see above?" Watson looked up, stared for a bit, and started describing the open night sky, the galaxies, and the myriad mysteries that it held. When he had paused to take a breath, Holmes, with bemusement and irritation writ large on his face, asked, "Don't you see, that somebody has stolen our tent?!" The takeaway - too often, we deliberately or mostly subconsciously lose ourselves in the maze of trivia, and forget that "the devil lies in the details", and more pertinently, as Holmes used to say, "Elementary, my dear Watson!"

Better late than never, so goes the saying. And, it is never too late to do a good job! These, and not any kind of apprehension or despondency, should be reigning supreme in the minds of all those among you who have just started on your law school entrance examination prep. This post would have come earlier, but for the fact that I wanted all of you to wade through the seemingly choppy waters, get knocked around a bit, find your feet somewhat, before dishing out advice or "expert-speak" (anyway, there's already too much of it out there).

This works great for anyone, but for people who are trying to prepare in one or two months for an exam like CLAT, this is the easiet and surest way to crack the exam. Remember that this method is not a magic pill, but I have not come across a better and quicker method to drastically improve. It takes hard work, and lots of people who are allergic to systematic, strategic hard work will never implement this. The beauty of this method is that it is so easy and simple that everyone can follow it, but very few actually do so. If you are not ready to work hard, if you have the discipline needed to be successful, don't read this article any more - it is not of any use to you anyway.

CLAT 2012 was a "C(L)ATastrophe"- so claimed many of those whose dreams lay shattered. Agreed, there were glitches and the CLAT Committee was to be blamed, but they weren't major enough to warrant the sordid outcry which followed and expectedly degenerated into a farce in no time at all. In this article, I look at where CLAT'12 had faltered, analyse the best CLAT papers we have had so far, and suggest how an ideal law school entrance examination paper should be.

GyanCentral caught up with A.P.Bharadwaj, proprietor of Innovation, author of various Legal Aptitude books for CLAT ,including a best seller - Pearson's Legal Aptitude for CLAT. He has the knack of training and tutoring more than 200 students every year and enabling them to get admission into various National Law Universities/Colleges and other Universities of the country. With less than 40 days for the major Law Entrance Exams like AILET and CLAT, the countdown has begun. Both, CLAT and AILET are the stepping stone for the realization of the dream of studying in a National Law University and developing them into efficient lawyers.

29,530 applications were received for (UG) CLAT-2013 at the CLAT Office (HNLU, Raipur) by the scheduled last date, i.e. March 30, 2013. 11,137 candidates applied offline and 18,393 applied online for the under graduate law entrance examination. 

Now that the application deadlines for most law school entrance exams are knocking at the door, this post is supposed to be a gentle-nudge to all aspirants. Every single one of you aspires for the best and put in the necessary endeavour too, I am sure. But somewhere, many of you go by the heart and not the head, ignore strategy, often to your detriment.