The CLAT 2016 was conducted by Rajiv Gandhi National Law University (RGNLU) Patiala on May 8, 2016. It was one of the easiest papers as compared to previous years' CLAT. In fact, CLAT 2016 proved to be a sigh of relief and a big respite for test takers. It resembled CLAT 2014 regarding the level of difficulty with only Mathematics section having tricky questions. However, no change was witnessed in the pattern of the exam.
The CLAT 2016 paper had five sections with a total of 200 questions to be completed in a time span of 2 hours. Each correct answer was awarded one mark, and 0.25 marks were deducted for every wrong answer. There was no marks deduction for un-attempted questions.
| Area | No. of Questions | Average Attempt | Level of Difficulty |
| English | 40 | 36-38 | Moderate |
| General Knowledge | 50 | 42-46 | Moderate |
| Math | 20 | 12-14 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Logical Reasoning | 40 | 34-36 | Easy to Moderate |
| Legal Aptitude | 50 | 42-46 | Easy to Moderate |
Given below is the detailed sectional analysis of CLAT 2016:
| Area | No. of Questions |
| Reading Comprehensions | 10 |
| Word Meanings | 4 |
| Sentence Correction | 4 |
| Vocabulary ( Spellings) | 5 |
| Fill in the Blanks | 12 |
| Preposition based Fill in the Blanks | 5 |
Evaluation: The English Section in CLAT was of easy to moderate level of difficulty. The maximum weightage was of sentence completion questions; these were based on both Vocabulary and Grammar.
There were five questions based on spellings test, and the level was moderate to difficult. Though it may seem that spelling test should be easy, yet when the different spellings are juxtaposed, the difficulty in choosing one as the answer increases. Then four questions of Sentence Correction. The errors were related to tenses usage and subject-verb agreement.
There was one reading comprehension on Nobel prizes history and distribution and described how Albert Einstein got the prize. There were ten questions, based on the paragraph, which were related to contextual vocabulary, factual and descriptive questions. The level of such questions was easy to moderate.
| Area | No. of Questions |
| Profit and Loss | 3 |
| Mixture | 1 |
| Number System | 4 |
| Speed, Distance and Time, Trains | 2 |
| Menstruation & Geometry | 2 |
| Average | 2 |
| Algebra | 1 |
| HCF LCM | 1 |
| SI & CI | 1 |
| Probability | 1 |
| Clocks and Calendars | 2 |
Evaluation: This section had a good mixture of questions from various test areas, and the difficulty level ranged from moderate to difficult. It had a few tricky and calculation based questions which made this section time consuming and toughest among others. Topics like Mixture, Mensuration and Geometry, Algebra and Simple Interest and Compound Interest were difficult while other topics like Clocks and Calendars, Probability, HCF and LCM, Number system, Average, etc. ranged from easy to moderate level of difficulty.
| Areas | Current GK | Static GK | Total |
| Govt. Schemes and Policies | 5 | 5 | |
| Miscellaneous | 14 | 5 | 19 |
| Books, Authors, Art, Culture | 3 | 3 | |
| Indian History | 1 | 1 | |
| Indian Polity | 8 | 5 | 13 |
| International and National Organization | 3 | 3 | |
| Science & Technology | 2 | 2 | |
| Sports | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Grand Total | 36 | 14 | 50 |
Evaluation: In this section, the majority of the questions were mainly from current affairs and a small portion (14 questions) comprised of static GK. As expected, the Current Affairs questions were from areas like National and International Politics, Social and Legal Affairs among others. The surprising factor was a question on Current Affairs was asked about an event which took place just a week before the exam. Test takers found this as an exception.
| Areas | No. of Questions |
| AR | 3 |
| Relation | 2 |
| Series | 2 |
| Misc. | 5 |
| Visual Reasoning | 1 |
| Ages | 1 |
| Coding Decoding | 1 |
| Ranking | 1 |
| Time | 1 |
| Critical Reasoning | 23 |
Evaluation: This section in CLAT 2016 was easy to moderate as compared to CLAT 2015. There were questions based on Blood Relations, Ages, Coding- Decoding which were easy to attempt and were less time consuming. A good attempt of 34-36 questions was expected as the difficulty level of questions was easy.
| Areas | No. of Questions |
| Indian Penal Code | 10 |
| Law of Torts | 10 |
| Constitution | 6 |
| Law of Contract | 12 |
| Legal Misc. | 12 |
Evaluation:
The CLAT legal aptitude section can be easily divided into
CLAT 2016's legal aptitude section was easier in comparison to that of CLAT 2015. Most of the questions varied between easy to moderate as far as the difficulty level is concerned. An average attempt of 45+ questions would be easy for a student who had clarity about the basic concepts of law, in addition to knowledge of the current affairs.
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