NLAT 2020 Analysis

This year The National Law School of India University, which is a public law school and a National Law University located in Bangalore, Karnataka, conducted its own entrance test NLAT for the admission

to the five year integrated B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) PROGRAMME, 2020-21.  The mode of the exam was online and could be taken from home as well as from centres. The exam was held in over 30 cities, across India, in three slots.  The pattern of the paper, as announced, was a little different from conventional law entrance exams. However the areas tested upon were same as those in CLAT.  The areas were English Language, Current Affairs Including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Techniques. Many student s reported technical glitches while taking the exam such as not able to access the test, test getting submitted before allotted time and many students were not able to start the test.  Overall the test platform had many technical and operational flaws.

Now looking at the format, instead of giving separate sections for different areas, there were four passages (General Comprehension passages i.e. GC) and questions based on five areas were created from every passage i.e. from every passage there were two questions each on the above mentioned five areas. In nutshell total 40 questions were based on four passages.

As the allotted was 45 minutes to attempt 40 questions so there was less than a minute was available to solve a question. Also one attempt per question was allowed and test takers were not allowed to revisit the attempted .question. Overall feel of the exam was moderate to difficult as the passages were time consuming and a few areas being difficult.

Marks per question -2

Negative marking -. 0.25 marks to be deducted if the question is not answered by the candidate and, 0.50 marks per question will be deducted if the selected answer is wrong.  

Slot - 1: 12:30 to 1:15 PM

Slot - 2: 2:15 to 3:00 PM

Slot - 3: 4:00 to 4:45 PM

Most of the passages (GC) were based on socio-economic or socio-political situations. A few of them also highlighted environment related legal and social issues.  In all the three slots English, GK, and legal reasoning were manageable but Quant & logical reasoning were a little time consuming and difficult.

The questions based on English language were easy to moderate in all the slots. Most of the questions were direct and could have been answered easily. The passages based on economy and covid -19 were common in all the slots. The answers were easily traceable in the passages.

This section also had easy to moderate questions. Most of the questions were based on environment, and political situations given in the paragraph.  All the three slots primarily covered areas such as appointments, environment schemes, economic policies, socio-economic variables etc. Overall this section was manageable for the students who were in touch with current affairs from 2019 to 2020

The difficulty level of this area was between easy to moderate. The questions were based on legal reasoning wherein a principle from either a domestic law or an international law was given in the question, followed by a factual situation. The passages were based on current social economic issues such as government policies, the impact of Covid on various spheres and issues related to women were seen in the 3 sessions. A clear understanding of legal reasoning along with general awareness of the current affairs would make this area easy to crack.

The quantitative was the most difficult of all. This is considered to be the trap section and lengthy questions should have been left.

These questions in all the three slots were time consuming and required understanding of the main argument of the passage. Primarily the questions were based on strengthen/weaken the argument. A few questions were based on inference or conclusion also.