CLAT syllabus
CLAT UG Syllabus
The Consortium does not publish a chapter list the way a board syllabus does. It publishes five skill areas and tells you what kind of passage each one uses and what you must be able to do with it. Everything below follows that structure, with the commonly asked topics added underneath.
1. English Language
Weightage: 22 to 26 questions, about 20 percent of the paper
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Passage length | About 450 words |
| Passage source | Contemporary or historically significant fiction and non fiction writing |
| Difficulty level | Set so that a class 12 student can read it in 5 to 7 minutes |
| Prior knowledge needed | None |
What you must be able to do
- Understand the main point of the passage along with the arguments and viewpoints in it
- Draw inferences and conclusions from the passage
- Summarise the passage
- Compare and contrast the different arguments or viewpoints given
- Work out the meaning of words and phrases from the way they are used
Topics that follow from this
Reading comprehension, inference and assumption based questions, tone and attitude of the author, main idea and title, vocabulary in context, synonyms and antonyms as used in the passage, and rearranging or completing ideas from the passage.
2. Current Affairs including General Knowledge
Weightage: 28 to 32 questions, about 25 percent of the paper
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Passage length | Up to 450 words |
| Passage source | News reports, journalistic writing and other non fiction writing |
| Prior knowledge needed | Helpful. This is the one section where knowing the background genuinely pays |
| Law knowledge needed | No knowledge of law beyond what the passage itself gives you |
What you must be able to do
- Answer on contemporary events of significance from India and the world
- Answer on arts and culture
- Answer on international affairs
- Answer on historical events that still matter today
Topics that follow from this
National and international news of the last 10 to 12 months, government schemes and policy decisions, important judgments and legal developments reported in the news, Constitution and polity in the news, awards and honours, sports events and winners, books and authors, summits and organisations, science and technology in the news, appointments, obituaries, and static general knowledge that connects to a current event.
3. Legal Reasoning
Weightage: 28 to 32 questions, about 25 percent of the paper
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Passage length | Around 450 words |
| Passage source | Fact situations, legal matters, public policy questions and moral philosophical questions |
| Prior knowledge needed | None. The rule you need is given inside the passage |
| What helps | A general awareness of legal and moral issues in the news |
What you must be able to do
- Identify and infer the rules and principles set out in the passage
- Apply those rules and principles to different fact situations
- Work out how the answer changes when the rule itself is changed
Topics that follow from this
Principle and fact questions, law of torts such as negligence, nuisance, trespass and vicarious liability, criminal law principles such as intention, consent and the general defences, contract principles such as offer, acceptance, consideration and breach, constitutional themes such as fundamental rights and equality, family and personal law situations, consumer and public policy questions, and questions on legal maxims where the meaning is supplied in the passage.
Remember that these are contexts for the passages, not a syllabus you have to memorise. You are never asked to recall a section number.
4. Logical Reasoning
Weightage: 22 to 26 questions, about 20 percent of the paper
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Passage length | Short passages of about 450 words |
| Passage source | Argumentative and analytical writing |
| Prior knowledge needed | None |
What you must be able to do
- Recognise an argument along with its premises and its conclusion
- Critically analyse patterns of reasoning and see how a conclusion depends on particular premises or evidence
- Judge what strengthens or weakens an argument
- Draw relationships and analogies, spot contradictions and equivalence
- Apply what follows from the passage to a new situation
Topics that follow from this
Assumptions and inferences, strengthening and weakening statements, conclusions and courses of action, flaws in reasoning, paradox resolution, analogies, and the occasional short arrangement or relationship set built on the passage.
5. Quantitative Techniques
Weightage: 10 to 14 questions, about 10 percent of the paper
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Passage form | Short sets of facts, propositions, graphs, tables or other textual representations of numbers |
| Mathematics level | Class 10 standard |
| Prior knowledge needed | Basic school mathematics only |
What you must be able to do
- Pull out, infer and work with the numerical information given in the passage
- Apply class 10 level mathematical operations on that information
Topics that follow from this
Ratio and proportion, percentages, profit and loss, averages, simple and compound interest, time and work, time speed and distance, basic algebra, mensuration, and reading data from tables, bar charts, pie charts and line graphs.
The Consortium itself suggests practising with a class 10 mathematics textbook, so this section rewards revision of school material rather than any new topic.
How the five sections add up
| Section | Questions | Share | Nature of the section |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language | 22 to 26 | 20 percent | Reading and inference |
| Current Affairs including General Knowledge | 28 to 32 | 25 percent | Awareness plus reading |
| Legal Reasoning | 28 to 32 | 25 percent | Rule application |
| Logical Reasoning | 22 to 26 | 20 percent | Argument analysis |
| Quantitative Techniques | 10 to 14 | 10 percent | Class 10 mathematics |
| Total | 120 | 100 percent |
Four of the five sections need no outside knowledge at all. Only Current Affairs asks you to bring something to the paper, and it happens to be the largest section, which is why daily newspaper reading is the single habit that separates a good CLAT score from an average one.