The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national-level entrance examination for admission to Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate degree programmes in Law. CLAT, since its inception, has been conducted once every year on rotation by the National Law Universities (NLUs). However, with the coming in of a permanent Secretariat, CLAT 2023 is being conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities. As per the latest update released by the consortium of NLUs in the pattern of the exam, it will consist of a total of 120 questions out of which 22-25 questions are in the CLAT English Section.
The CLAT English section tests the candidate's proficiency in English based on comprehension passages, grammar and vocabulary. Candidates are questioned on their understanding of the passage and its central theme, meanings of words used in the passage, etc. The grammar section has questions on sentence correction, sentence rearrangement, filling the blanks with appropriate words, etc.
To score well in the English section of CLAT, it is important to formulate a concrete strategy for preparation. Following are a couple of tips that will help you prepare well for CLAT English Section:
- Reading Speed: It is important to increase your reading speed as this is relevant not only to the English section but to the whole paper. Since, CLAT is a speed-based exam, increasing your reading speed is of vital importance. By increasing your speed, what we mean is that you must be able to understand the meaning of the passage in one-two reading. The comprehension passages in CLAT are lengthy, 500-1000 words; hence, effective reading skills are imperative. One good way to do this is by reading the Newspaper daily which will not only improve your reading skills but will also help you solve questions on Current Affairs, Legal GK and Legal Reasoning. Additionally, developing a reading habit by reading plenty of books proves to be extremely fruitful. Also, students should try reading topics from different subjects as the comprehension in the exam can be from any field.
- Grammar: This is one area where a lot of test takers lose marks. One prime reason for this is the difference between our spoken and written English. To avoid errors in this section, students must thoroughly go through the Rules of grammar. Let us look at a question from an actual CLAT exam that tested the grammar knowledge of the candidates:
Q.If you promise ________________ angry with me, I’ll tell you what I broke.
- not to get
- not get
- get not
- not getting
As is evident here, the question is very simple but it requires a strong knowledge of grammar basics. Hence, it is important that you revise all concepts well and practice ample question types on grammar.
- Vocabulary Building: For CLAT English Section, you need to build a strong vocabulary which, requires a long term sustained effort. It is not something which can be done in a month alone. One method of improving vocabulary is by reading newspaper regularly and making a list of all new words. Using these words in your conversation or writing will help you remember them. Students can also look into word roots, prefixes and suffixes for acing questions based on vocabulary. Let us look at a vocabulary based question from CLAT:
Q. Choose the correct spelling
- Intigerity
- Integrity
- Integerity
- Integerety
-
To sum up, for an effective preparation for CLAT English, you must improve your reading habits preferably by reading Newspaper, revise grammar basics and solve plenty of practice papers for CLAT.