Pattern of the CLAT Paper for entry to the Under-graduate Programme:

Total Marks                                200
Total number of questions           200
Duration of examination            Two Hours

Subject areas with weightage:

English including Comprehension             40 Marks
General Knowledge/ Current Affairs         50 Marks
Mathematics                                        20 Marks
Logical Reasoning                                 45 Marks
Legal Aptitude/Legal Awareness            45 Marks
 

The different subject areas of the exam are explained as under:

•     English including Comprehension

The English section will test the candidate's proficiency in English based comprehension passages and grammar.     In the comprehension section, candidates will be questioned on their understanding of the passage and its central theme, meanings of words used therein etc. The grammar section requires correction of incorrect grammatical sentences, filling in of blanks in sentences with appropriate words, etc.

•   General Knowledge/Current Affairs

This section will only test students on their knowledge of current affairs (broadly defined as matters featuring in the mainstream media between May 2010 and May 2011)

•     Mathematics

This section will test candidates only on "elementary" mathematics i.e. maths that is taught till the class 10.

•     Logical Reasoning

The purpose of the logical reasoning section is to test the student's ability to identify patterns, logical links and rectify illogical arguments. It will include a wide variety of logical reasoning questions such as syllogisms, logical sequences, analogies, etc. However, visual reasoning will not be tested, as this tends to disadvantage those that are visually impaired.

•   Legal Aptitude/Legal Awareness

Legal Aptitude/Legal Awareness This section will test students only on "legal aptitude". Questions will be framed with the help of legal propositions (described in the paper), and a set of facts to which the said proposition has to be applied. Some propositions may not be "true" in the real sense (e.g. the legal proposition might be that any person who speaks in a movie hall and disturbs others that are watching the movie will be banned from entering any movie theatre across India for one year). Candidates will have to assume the "truth" of these propositions and answer the question accordingly.
Candidates will not be tested on any prior knowledge of law or legal concepts. If a technical/legal term is used in the question, that term will be explained in the question itself. For example, if the word patent is used, the meaning of patent ("a legal monopoly granted by the government for certain kinds of inventions") will also be explained.