CLAT frequently asked questions
Q: What is CLAT and who conducts it?
A: The Common Law Admission Test is a national level entrance exam conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities. CLAT UG is the entry route to the five year integrated law programmes such as B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), BBA LL.B. (Hons.) and B.Com LL.B. (Hons.) at the participating National Law Universities. Several private law colleges and IIULER Goa also admit students on the basis of CLAT scores.
Q: What is the overall selection process?
A: There is only one stage. Unlike judicial service examinations, CLAT has no prelims, no mains and no interview. You write a single paper, the Consortium publishes your score and All India Rank, and admission is decided entirely through the counselling rounds that follow.
Q: What is the CLAT UG exam pattern?
A: A single offline paper on an OMR sheet, 120 multiple choice questions carrying 1 mark each, to be completed in 2 hours. Every question is based on a passage. The medium is English only, and there are no sectional time limits.
Q: What is the negative marking rule?
A: 0.25 marks are deducted for every wrong answer. Four wrong answers cancel out one correct answer, so blind guessing costs you real marks. Unanswered questions carry no penalty.
Q: How are the 120 questions distributed across sections?
A: Approximately as follows. English Language 22 to 26 questions, Current Affairs including General Knowledge 28 to 32, Legal Reasoning 28 to 32, Logical Reasoning 22 to 26, and Quantitative Techniques 10 to 14. Current Affairs and Legal Reasoning together make up about half the paper.
Q: Do I need to have studied law before?
A: No. The Consortium tests aptitude, not prior knowledge. In Legal Reasoning the rule or principle you need is printed inside the passage itself, and you are expected to apply exactly that rule. The only section where background knowledge genuinely helps is Current Affairs including General Knowledge, which is why daily newspaper reading matters more than any law book.
Q: What is the educational qualification required?
A: You must have passed, or be appearing in, Class 12 or an equivalent examination from a recognised board.
Q: What is the minimum percentage required in Class 12?
A: 45 percent for General, OBC, EWS, NRI, PIO and OCI candidates, and 40 percent for SC and ST candidates. Note that this is an eligibility requirement only. Your Class 12 marks do not add to your CLAT score or affect your rank in any way.
Q: Can I apply while I am still in Class 12?
A: Yes. Students appearing in the Class 12 examination in March or April of the following year can apply, provided they meet the minimum percentage requirement at the time of admission. A pending compartment or an undeclared result at the counselling stage can cost you the seat, so the qualifying result must be clear by then.
Q: Does my stream matter?
A: No. Science, Commerce and Arts students are all equally eligible, and none of the five sections assumes any particular stream. Quantitative Techniques uses class 10 level mathematics only, so a student who dropped mathematics after class 10 is not at a disadvantage.
Q: Is there an age limit or a cap on attempts?
A: There is no upper age limit and no lower age limit for CLAT UG, and there is no restriction on the number of attempts.
Q: When is the exam held and when does registration open?
A: CLAT is usually held on the first or second Sunday of December, for admission in the following academic session. CLAT 2027 is scheduled for 6 December 2026, and the application window opened on 3 August 2026. Always confirm the dates against the notification for your cycle on the Consortium website.
Q: What is the application fee?
A: Based on the previous cycle, approximately ₹4,000 for General, OBC and other categories and ₹3,500 for SC and ST candidates. Previous year question papers are usually charged separately. Confirm the current figures in the live notification.
Q: Is NLU Delhi part of CLAT?
A: No. National Law University Delhi conducts its own entrance test, AILET, and does not admit through CLAT. Many CLAT aspirants write both.
Q: How is admission actually decided after the result?
A: Purely by your All India Rank, applied through the Consortium's centralised counselling. You submit your preference order of universities and programmes, and seats are allotted across successive rounds based on rank, category and the reservation policy of each university. There is no qualifying percentage in CLAT. Everything is relative to how other candidates performed that year.
Q: What score should I be aiming for?
A: There is no fixed cutoff. It moves every year with the difficulty of the paper, the number of candidates and the category and university you are targeting. The practical approach is to look at the previous two or three years of closing ranks for the universities you want, and to track your accuracy percentage in mocks rather than chasing a single target number.
Q: Is there any domicile or state quota?
A: CLAT itself has no domicile requirement, and any Indian candidate can appear from anywhere. However, several National Law Universities reserve a share of their seats for candidates domiciled in their own state, and those rules belong to the individual university, not to the Consortium. Check the seat matrix of each university you plan to fill in your preference list.
Q: How is CLAT UG different from CLAT PG?
A: CLAT UG is for admission to the five year integrated law programme after class 12. CLAT PG is for LL.M. admission and requires an LL.B. degree with 50 percent marks, relaxed to 45 percent for SC and ST candidates. Both papers now carry 120 questions in 2 hours, but the PG paper is built on actual legal knowledge, while the UG paper is not.
Q: Can I prepare for CLAT alongside my board examinations?
A: Yes, and the two support each other more than they clash. CLAT falls in early December, several months before board examinations, so the heavy phase of each lands in a different part of the year. The core CLAT skills, reading long passages carefully and applying class 10 mathematics, are things your school work is already building.