The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2017 was conducted by Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), Patna on the 14th May, 2017 at approximately 66 centers nationally. The national ranking is expected to be released on 29th May, 2017. The CLAT 2017 scores will be accepted by 18 National Law universities for admissions into its undergraduate law programs.
The 2017 CLAT exam was conducted online and had 200 questions across 5 areas: English, Logical Reasoning, General Knowledge, Legal Aptitude and Mathematics. The questions carried one mark each with 0.25 marks deducted for every incorrect answer. A total of 2 hours (120 minutes) were given and the questions were distributed across the sections as:
- English including Comprehension- 40 Questions
- General Knowledge and Current Affairs- 50 Question
- Elementary Mathematics ( Numerical Ability)- 20 Questions
- Legal Aptitude- 50 Questions
- Logical Reasoning – 40 Questions
Let us now look at the detailed analysis for each section:
English Including Comprehension:
| Area |
Number of questions |
| Grammar based fill in the blanks |
10 |
| Reading Comprehension |
5 |
| Sentence Correction |
5 |
| Spellings |
10 |
| Grammar part -error |
10 |
| Total |
40 |
The level of questions in this section was easy to moderate and should have been done in a short time. There was one passage, with five questions, based on ‘negotiations related to WTO’. The passage was moderate in terms of understanding but the questions were direct except one or two, which were tricky. The five questions based on sentence correction were primarily based on rules of modifier, correct usage of pronouns, & parallelism. There were 10 questions based finding the correct spellings and were easy.
General Knowledge and Current Affairs:
| Area |
No. of Questions |
| India & World Economy |
5 |
| Awards & Honors |
3 |
| Current Affairs (misc.) |
10 |
| Sci & Tech. |
9 |
| Sports |
3 |
| Govt. Scheme & Policy |
2 |
| Awards & Honors |
3 |
| Misc. GK |
15 |
| Total |
50 |
This year’s CLAT GK section was dominated by Current Affairs. Events till May, 2017 were covered. This trend is continuing with the changing character of the CLAT exam. Questions from major static Gk sections such as Geography and History were missing. There were around 40 questions from current affairs. Economy, National and International Organizations, Awards & Honors, Important Personalities dominated a good part of the question paper. Candidates who read the newspaper regularly and focused on updating their knowledge of current affairs would have done well in this section.
Elementary Mathematics (Numerical Ability):
| Area |
Number of questions |
| SI/CI |
2 |
| Mixture |
2 |
| Ratio |
2 |
| Time and Work |
4 |
| Boats and streams |
2 |
| Probability |
1 |
| Number System |
4 |
| Profit and Loss |
1 |
| Clocks |
1 |
| Time speed and distance |
1 |
| Total |
20 |
This section carried a mix bag of questions from all areas of elementary mathematics. However, 8 questions were from Number system and Time & Work. The level of difficulty of all question types ranged from easy to moderate.
Legal Aptitude:
| Subject Name |
No. of Questions |
| Law of Torts |
6 |
| Law of Contract |
13 |
| Constitution |
7 |
| Indian Penal Code |
10 |
| Legal Maxim |
15 |
| Total |
50 |
| Question Type |
No. of Questions |
| Legal Fact Questions(Maxims) |
15 |
| Principle-Fact Questions(Legal Reasoning) |
35 |
| Total |
50 |
The section was interspersed with questions from Contract, Indian Penal Code and Law of Torts. Questions from Law of Torts mainly focused on topics like nuisance, negligence and trespass. Rape, criminal conspiracy and joint liability dominated the questions from the Indian Penal Code, amongst other topics like private defence, carnal intercourse, embezzlement and theft. Focus areas for the law of contract were offer, acceptance and undue influence. The principle-fact questions were designed to ensure a careful reading by the CLAT aspirant. There wasn’t a single question from the current legal GK, which marked a major deviation from the previous year papers, where a weightage of at least 15 questions was given to the said question type. Unpredictably, 15 questions were based on legal maxims, of which 4 to 5 were difficult to crack.
Logical Reasoning:
| Area |
Number of questions |
| Analytical Reasoning |
8 |
| Calendars |
2 |
| Directions |
6 |
| Relations |
6 |
| Percentage |
1 |
| Clocks |
1 |
| Coding Decoding |
3 |
| Syllogism |
2 |
| Series |
1 |
| Verbal Analogies |
2 |
| One word substitution |
3 |
| Odd one out |
3 |
| Sentence equivalence |
2 |
| Total |
40 |
This section contained questions from a variety of areas of Logical Reasoning with a major focus on Analytical reasoning, questions on directions and relations. Managing speed with accuracy was an essential parameter for this section.
| Section |
Level of difficulty, Time & Accuracy |
| English Including Comprehension |
The overall feel of this section was easy and an attempt of 32+ would be considered good with 85-90% accuracy |
| General Knowledge and Current Affairs |
Difficulty level of the questions was moderate to difficult. An attempt of 33-35 would have been good, leading to an achievable score of 28-30 |
| Elementary Mathematics( Numerical Ability) |
The level of difficulty of the section was easy to moderate. Ideal time to solve the section was 25 minutes with 80% accuracy and an ideal score of 13 -15 marks. |
| Legal Aptitude |
The overall level of this section was moderate to difficult. An average score for this section would be 36 to 38. |
| Logical Reasoning |
The level of difficulty of the section was easy to moderate. Ideal time to solve the section is 35 minutes and the ideal score is 30 - 32 marks with 80% accuracy. |
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