CLAT 2021 Exam Analysis

Overall, the paper could be termed as moderately difficult and extremely lengthy. Compared to the previous year’s paper, it was lengthier and moderately difficult. While last year was the beginning of the new era of the CLAT 2.0 paper pattern, this year’s paper, although expected, can still be termed as tougher than its predecessor.

CLAT 2021 had a total of 150 questions to be attempted in 120 minutes. The negative marking scheme could act as a deterrent this year, considering the difficulty level of the paper.

Given below is the section-wise breakup of the paper; and the ideal attempts for the top 3 NLUs:

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Section-wise Analysis

Reading Comprehension

There certainly was an overlap between the Reading Comprehension section and the Logical Reasoning one. RC was moderately easy; and needed around 25–27 minutes to attempt and complete the entire section. There were altogether six passages, with 5 questions each. There were no grammar-based questions this time. A good attempt would be somewhere around 25-26 questions, with a score of 24+.

General Knowledge

The broad feedback from the student is: "Weird". We agree! While students tortured themselves throughout the year reading newspapers and editorials, the General Knowledge section was dominated by static GK. Let's just call it this year’s surprise from CLAT. Even with the static portion, the section could not exactly be termed as an easy one. The timeline of the questions was 1945 till date. There were altogether 7 passages with 5 questions each. Overall, the section was moderately difficult. A score of 25+, with an ideal attempt of 30-31, could be considered good.

Legal Reasoning

This is the section we would call “Easy”. Students who disagree would be the ones who did not exactly focus on the primary rule of learning, i.e., ‘Understand the concept’. All the passages were based on some of the very basic concepts of law; and every law aspirant is expected to be aware of each one of those concepts. Even if we consider the passage, which was based on compassionate appointment, this is something which has been in the news a lot for the past few months. In fact, the questions too could be termed as ‘standard’ CLAT questions. The passage based on the principle of VNFI could be regarded as tricky, but for any student who had studied the same, it was a cakewalk. With a total of 40 questions from 8 passages, the section could be regarded as the easiest one this year. A score of 31+ with an ideal attempt of 34-35 questions could be regarded as a good score. Due to the length of the section, it needed somewhere around 35-37 minutes to complete.

Logical Reasoning

Here, time management is always the key. The section was again neither too difficult nor too easy but surely was lengthy. There were no questions from Analytical Reasoning. In fact, the entire section had questions from Critical Reasoning, something which was expected last year. With a total of 30 questions from 6 passages, a score of 21+ with an ideal attempt of 25-26 questions could be considered good; provided, one was able to allot 30 minutes to this section.

Quantitative Aptitude

There were altogether 3 sets with 15 questions in total. An initial reading gave the impression that the section was fairly easy, but when one started solving the questions…not so much! Any student who would have avoided skipping this section entirely, and attempted it, would easily score somewhere around 8-10 marks.
However, this year, certain questions in this section seems erroneous. We’ll have to wait for the answer key to take the final call.

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Expected Cut-Offs for the Top 3 NLUs

Disclaimer: All information on cut-offs, analysis, answer key, and scores are based on independent analysis and evaluation made by CL-LST. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken based on this information.

Best wishes!
Team CL-LST