CLAT or Common Law Admission Test, is a national-level entrance exam for admission to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law courses. It's accepted by 24 National Law Universities (NLUs) and various other colleges/universities across India.
It is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, with NLSIU (National Law School of India University) at the helm.
This page is periodically updated and includes Consortium announcements for academic years 2024-2025. CLAT 2024 is on the way, and the best practice is to know about the test details in advance.
Test Highlights |
Details |
Full Form |
CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) |
Test Conducting Body |
The Consortium of National Law Universities |
Test Level |
UG and PG |
Test Frequency |
Once a year |
Test Mode |
Offline |
Test Duration |
120 Minutes |
Test Language |
English |
Test Purpose |
Admissions to BA LLB, BCom LLB, BSc LLB, BBA LLB, BSW LLB, LLM courses |
Based on the previous year's revised deadlines for the exam announced by the consortium, here are the important dates the candidate should keep a note of.
Event |
Dates |
Release of admission notification |
July 2023 |
Start of online application form |
1 July 2023 |
Last date to submit the application form |
3 November 2023 |
Release of admit card |
November-end 2023 |
Exam date |
3 December 2023 |
Release of final answer key |
First week of December 2023 |
Declaration of results |
Second week of December 2023 |
Commencement of counseling |
January 2024 |
Let’s take a look at the five sections that comprise CLAT. These sections test one's aptitude and reasoning abilities, and hence, require months of preparation and practice.
Every question carries 1 mark, and 0.25 points will be deducted for every wrong answer.
Subject/Section |
Number of questions (weightage) |
English Language |
22-26 (20% of the paper) |
Quantitative Techniques |
10-14 (10% of the paper) |
Logical Reasoning |
22-26 (20% of the paper) |
Current Affairs, including General Knowledge |
28-32 (25% of the paper) |
Legal Reasoning |
28-32 (25% of the paper) |
Total Questions |
120 questions of one mark each |
Total Marks |
120 |
Total Time (min) |
120 |
Negative Marking |
0.25 marks for each wrong answer |
Want more information about the exam pattern? Read our detailed page on the CLAT exam pattern.
Any applicant who has passed the 10+2 or an equivalent examination can apply for the 2024 exam. The minimum marks required for different categories are listed below:
Note: Candidates who cleared the Class 12th examination in March/ April 2024 are also eligible for the test. Upon admission, these candidates must provide proof that they passed their Class 12th exam. Candidates who fail to fulfill this will be rejected and lose their right to admission.
CLAT doesn't have an age limit. As long as you meet the eligibility criteria you can give the exam.
Candidates seeking admission to undergraduate law courses offered by the participating NLUs can fill out the application form for the exam on the official Consortium website.
The steps to apply are as follows:
Note: Once an application has been submitted and paid for, the candidate will be unable to modify the program, category, or BPL field. Any change/alteration found in the name entered may disqualify the candidature.
Given below is a list of documents that a student will need while applying for CLAT 2024.
Document |
Format |
Photograph |
jpeg/png |
Signature |
jpeg/png |
Category Certificate for SC/ST/OBC candidates |
|
Relevant Certificate for P.W.D. candidates |
|
Relevant Certificate for BPL candidates |
|
The CLAT 2024 cut-off is the minimum marks and rankings required for admittance to NLUs. After the counseling rounds, each NLU releases the cut-off in the form of opening and closing rankings. The table below shows the basic expected cut-off based on expert analysis.
Category |
Expected Cut-Off Marks (120 Total) |
General |
85-90 |
OBC and SC/ST |
70-80 |
It should be noted that the cut-off differs per college and across all student categories.
Category |
Amount |
General/ OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO//OCI |
INR 4000 |
ST, SC, EWS |
INR 3500 |
The test is conducted in offline mode where the paper has 120 questions from five different sections. Below is a summary of the scope. The full syllabus in detail can be found on the CLAT exam syllabus page.
The English Language section of the exam comprises multiple passages, each approximately 450 words in length. These passages will be sourced from contemporary or historically significant works of both fiction and non-fiction. They will be of a standard that a 12th-grade student can comfortably read within 5-7 minutes.
Following each passage, a series of questions will measure your understanding and linguistic skills. These questions are designed to measure your abilities to:
The General Knowledge and Current Affairs section of the exam will include comprehension-type passage-based questions from Static general knowledge and current affairs, each with a maximum length of 450 words. The General Knowledge part will include questions about current events in India and throughout the world, including arts and culture, international affairs, and historical events and their relevance.
Following each passage, a series of questions will assess your understanding of various aspects of current affairs and general knowledge, which may include:
The Legal reasoning portion of the exam will have 450-word comprehension-type sections. Following the comprehension readings will be objective-type questions. This section will assess candidates' abilities in identifying and inferring the rules and principles given in the passage, applying the rules and principles to various fact situations, and comprehending how modifications to rules or principles may affect their application to different factual situations.
Following each passage, you will encounter a series of questions that will assess your ability to:
The logical reasoning section will include 300-word paragraphs. This section of the exam will assess candidates' ability to identify arguments and their premises and draw conclusions, critically analyze patterns of reasoning, assess how conclusions may depend on specific premises or evidence, infer what follows from the passage, and apply these inferences to new situations, draw relationships and analogies, identify contradictions and equivalence, and evaluate argument effectiveness.
The Quantitative Techniques section of the exam will encompass brief presentations of facts, propositions, or numerical data, followed by a series of questions. Your task will be to extract and deduce information from these passages or questions, and subsequently employ mathematical operations.
These questions will entail:
Let's start with some preparation advice from our specialists to get the right solution to "How to Prepare for CLAT."
To have an in-depth dive into CLAT preparation, check out our CLAT preparation guide.
The exam centers are situated in various cities across India. Candidates can select their exam center when completing the CLAT Application Form. Once assigned, the exam center cannot be altered. Candidates should carefully select their desired exam center and ensure that they can get there easily on the day of the exam.
While filling out the form, you will be able to select 3 Center locations of your preference.
Here is a list of cities where the Exam Centres are located.
Agartala |
Chennai |
Guwahati |
Jodhpur |
Muzzafarpur |
Shillong |
Agra |
Chittoor/Tirupathi |
Gwalior |
Kanpur |
Mysore |
Shimla |
Allahabad |
Coimbatore |
Haldwani |
Kolkata |
Nagpur |
Siliguri |
Amravati (Maharashtra) |
Cuttack |
Hissar |
Kota |
Navi Mumbai |
Sonepat |
Amritsar |
Dehradun |
Hooghly |
Kottayam |
New Delhi |
Srinagar |
Asansol |
Durg |
Hubli/Dharwad |
Kurnool |
Patiala |
Surat |
Aurangabad |
Ernakulum |
Hyderabad |
Kurukshetra |
Patna |
Thane |
Barrackpore |
Faridabad |
Imphal |
Lucknow |
Puducherry |
Thiruvananthapuram |
Bengaluru |
Gandhinagar |
Indore |
Madurai |
Pune |
Tirunelveli |
Bhopal |
Gangtok |
Jabalpur |
Malda |
Raipur |
Trichy |
Bhubaneshwar |
Ghaziabad |
Jaipur |
Mangalore |
Rajahmundry |
Vadodara |
Bilaspur |
Gorakhpur |
Jalandhar |
Meerut |
Rajkot |
Varanasi |
Calicut |
Greater Noida/Noida |
Jammu |
Mohali |
Ranchi |
Vijayawada |
Chandigarh |
Gurugram |
Jamshedpur |
Mumbai |
Salem |
Vishakhapatnam |
The CLAT 2024 Admit Card will be released by the consortium of NLUs at least 15 days before the exam date, which is expected to be in the final week of November 2023. The admit card once out, can be downloaded from the official website - consortiumofnlus.ac.in
Possessing an admit card is mandatory for appearing in CLAT 2024. The admission card contains information such as the candidate's roll number, the name and address of the exam center, exam times, and instructions.
Step 1: Go to the exam's official website, https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in
Step 2: Select CLAT 2024 and log in by providing your registered mobile number and password.
Step 3: Once logged in, on the top right of the screen, click the Download Admit Card link.
Step 5: Save the admission card PDF file to your device.
Step 6: Print at least two-to-three copies of the admission card on A4 paper for future reference.
The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) will likely release CLAT 2024 results in the second week of December 2023. The results will be available on the consortium website. By entering into their registered account, candidates may get the CLAT 2024 result PDF.
The scorecard includes the total marks received in the exam, the overall rank attained in CLAT 2024, the category, and other information. Candidates will be invited to the counseling procedure based on their scores. Counselling is the final stage of admission to National Law Universities (NLUs).
Since CLAT 2024 is right around the corner it's only natural to feel the weight of the exam. There are thousands of exam takers who will feel they aren’t ready enough or don’t meet the eligibility criteria set worth. Worse even there are people that often don't make it on their first try.
There isn’t any need to worry as there are no limitations on how many times you can attend CLAT. With that in mind let’s look at some of the preparation strategies for CLAT 2025.
CLAT 2025 preparation strategy should ideally include:
However, there are some other significant aspects to consider when studying for the CLAT test.
Candidates studying for the exam should follow a well-organized study schedule. They must complete a large curriculum, thus they must study at least 6-7 hours every day. It is recommended that you complete the CLAT course at least two months before the test so that you have enough time for review.
Candidates have to read and attempt around 28-30 sections in 120 minutes. They must have extraordinary reading abilities in order to read all of these passages and answer the underlying questions. The ability to read rapidly and grasp the content will put the applicants ahead of the competition.
Candidates with fast reading speeds will also be able to finish the paper on time. As a result, applicants should create a practice of reading articles, newspapers, and complicated sections, particularly those from legal publications, while studying for the examination.
It is recommended that aspirants solve as many mock exam papers and sample papers as feasible. Toppers recommends that students do 80-100 practice examinations during their CLAT preparation.
Sample tests will assist applicants in grasping the paper's difficulty level, exam pattern, question trends, and other key features. Furthermore, these problems will train applicants to complete the exam in the allotted time frame.
Here are some of the important points and key takeaways to know for CLAT 2024.
CLAT or Common Law Admission Test, is a national-level entrance exam for admission to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law courses. It's accepted by 24 National Law Universities (NLUs) and various other colleges/universities across India. To see the list of Participating Universities for CLAT 2024, click here.
CLAT 2024 will be held on December 3, 2023, in offline mode.
Candidates who have finished Class 12 in or before the April/May 2024 session can register for CLAT UG, whilst those who have completed LLB graduation can appear for CLAT PG.
No, it will only be held once during the 2024 session. It takes place every year in December.
There is no maximum age requirement to take CLAT.
In case of any discrepancy in the admit card, the candidates must immediately contact the test conducting authority and try to rectify the issue in time. Hence, it is advised for the candidate to download the document as soon as available.
In the month of January 2024.
CLAT preparation typically takes 6 months to a year. This is due to the fact that a number of critical principles must be learned and then put into practice.
Yes, you can apply. However, you will be required to present such documentation at the time of admission, otherwise, you will be disqualified for admission to the course for which you have applied.