CLAT Analysis - The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2026 was conducted on 7th December from 2 pm to 4 pm. The National Law Universities will accept the CLAT 2026 scores for admission into its undergraduate law programs. This article gives a detailed CLAT analysis 2026.
The CLAT 2026 exam was conducted in a paper and pen-based mode and had 120 questions across 5 areas: English, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques. The questions carried one mark each with 0.25 marks deducted for every incorrect answer. The overall feel of the paper was moderate to tough.
The major surprise this year was that logical reasoning section had questions based of pure analytical reasoning or logical reasoning topics such as blood relations, puzzles, etc. instead of passage based critical reasoning questions. Initially most of the students were not able to adjust themselves with this change but later on, most, were able to regain confidence and did well in this section. Another minor change was changes in number of questions in logical reasoning section & Legal reasoning section. These sections had 26 & 30 questions respectively. Last year there were 24 & 32 questions in these two sections respectively. A total of 2 hours (120 minutes) was given and the questions were distributed across the sections as follows:
Overview of the CLAT 2026
CLAT 2026 Exam Pattern
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Number of Sections
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5
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Sections
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English, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Techniques
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Total no. of questions
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120
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Duration of the test
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2 hours
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Total marks
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120
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Marks per question
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1
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Negative Marking
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0.25 Negative Marking
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Expected Cut Off
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For top 5 NLUs the cut off is likely to be 93+ and for other NLUs it is likely to be 85+
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Section-wise Breakup of CLAT 2026
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Sections
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No of Questions
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Marks Allotted
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English
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24
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24
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General Knowledge & Current Affairs
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28
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28
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Legal Reasoning
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30
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30
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Logical Reasoning
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26
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26
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Quantitative Techniques
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12
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12
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Total
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120
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120
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Let us now look at the detailed analysis for each section:
CLAT 2026 Section-wise Analysis
A total of 120 multiple choice questions made up the CLAT exam and the subjects on which a candidate was asked to comprehend were- General Knowledge & Current Affairs, English including comprehension, Legal reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques.
I. English:
Evaluation: This section had 24 questions. The level of questions in this section was easy to slightly moderate, and most of the passages were understandable. There were 5 reading comprehension passages. Four passages had 5 questions each and one passage had four questions. The questions were primarily based on contextual understanding of the passages. The questions were based on facts, figures of speech, tones, a few reasoning based, and other conventional types. Every passage had at least one question based on contextual vocabulary. Passages were based on ‘Non-Cooperative movement, ‘evolution of humankind & history, ‘evolution of democracy with essence of world war’, ‘text from Tagore’s ‘hungry stones’, text from George Orwell ‘Animal Farm’. The passage were manageable but a few were slightly lengthy.
Essential Skills Required: Good reading speed and an understanding the context based ofn diverse areas.
Overall Feel: Easy to Moderate but slightly lengthy.
Good Attempt: 20-22 questions
II. Current Affairs including General Knowledge:
Evaluation: This year, the GK Section of the CLAT 2026 exam was of moderate. There were 28 questions in the GK area. There were 5 passages, and each passage had 6 questions except one which had 4 questions. Passages were rooted in current affairs but with a blend of static & contemporary background knowledge. The topics covered were ‘Donald Trump’s H-1B visa policy & Tariffs issues with India, Pahalgam & Indus Water Treaty, Indian Chess Sector & Indian Grandmasters, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, & Ahmedabad Plane crash incident.
Essential Skills Required: Awareness of Current Events, Critical Thinking and Analysis
Overall Feel: Moderate.
Good Attempt: 22-25 questions
III. Legal Reasoning:
Evaluation: The Legal Reasoning section comprised 30 questions, distributed across five passages, each carrying six questions. The passages were drawn from a diverse range of contemporary and constitutional themes, including: One Nation, One Election, Framing of the Indian Constitution, Manoj Narula v. Union of India, State of Tamil Nadu v. Governor of Tamil Nadu &Same-Sex Marriages. The question set reflected a balanced mix of passage-based legal reasoning and legal knowledge (Legal GK). Notably, several questions required candidates to apply or recall legal understanding beyond the text of the passage, indicating the paper’s emphasis on assessing both interpretative ability and foundational legal awareness. The overall difficulty of the section ranged from moderate to difficult, with certain passages demanding deeper critical reasoning and familiarity with recent constitutional issues.
Essential Skills Required: Strong reading speed and comprehension, Critical thinking and analytical ability, and Awareness of current legal developments
Overall Feel: Moderate to Difficult.
Good Attempt: 26–28 questions
IV. Logical Reasoning
Evaluation: This section came as major surprise for all students. This section had 26 questions instead of 24 questions as preconceived by previous trends. Like previous two years, students this year also expected the questions to be in the form of passage with 4-6 critical reasoning questions based on them. However, this section was filled with conventional analytical reasoning based questions such as puzzle based on rearrangement of letters of the word ‘Electrocardiograph’(easy), a case regarding stealing of Sunburst Medallion’, & blood relation four teams competing in science Olympiad(toughest). As students were not expecting this change so most of them were initially lost confidence. However, after recovering slowly and by mustering courage, most of the students were able to perform well.
Essential Skills Required: Knowledge of concepts & tricks to solve puzzles and conventional logical reasoning topics.
Overall Feel: Moderate to tough
Good Attempt: 20-22 questions
V. Quantitative Techniques:
Evaluation: There were 2 sets of 6 questions each (1lengthy set based on health Insurance moving around percentage and 1 set on electricity distribution) which were of medium to difficult level. The first set was about the coverage of rural & urban populations under health insurance and it was a moderate in level & lengthy set. The second set is based on electricity production & progress in power sector, and it was a manageable set.
Essential Skills Required: quick & accurate calculations & practice
Overall Feel: Moderate- Difficult
Good Attempt: 8-10 questions
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