CLAT UG syllabus

CLAT does not test law. The Consortium states it plainly for Legal Reasoning: you will not require any prior knowledge of law to attempt the questions in this section. The same holds in Current Affairs, where questions may touch on legal information in a passage but require no knowledge of law beyond it.

What the paper actually tests is reading speed under a clock. Four of the five sections are built on passages of around 450 words, and the Consortium benchmarks an English passage of that length at five to seven minutes for a 12th standard student. With 120 questions in 120 minutes, most of the hour and a half you are not spending on answers goes on reading.

The paper is 120 questions, not the 150 a great deal of material still describes. That changed from CLAT 2024 and has not moved since. Browse the available CLAT UG practice papers.

Syllabus by section

The Consortium publishes these as approximate ranges rather than fixed counts, so the split moves slightly from year to year while the total holds at 120.

CLAT UG at a glance

Exam pattern

One paper, two hours, no sectional timing

Every question carries one mark and a wrong answer costs 0.25, so four wrong answers cancel one correct one. There is no sectional timing and no sectional cut-off, which means the two hours can be spent wherever they are worth most.

The paper is set offline on paper, and it is a single sitting, so there is no normalisation across shifts.

How the pattern has changed

One substantive change in recent years, and nothing since.

The Consortium notified the cut from 150 questions to 120 in June 2023, with the duration left at two hours and the five sections retained. That raised the time available per question from 48 seconds to a full minute, which is the single most useful consequence of the change and the reason older sectional strategies no longer hold.

Negative marking has stayed at 0.25 throughout, and the section weightings have not moved since the change.

An expert committee reported on CLAT reform in 2026, recommending a shift away from testing general knowledge and towards aptitude. The Consortium published the report and simultaneously confirmed no change to the current cycle. Nothing has been adopted, and the earliest any of it could take effect is a later cycle.

English Language

• Passages of about 450 words each, drawn from contemporary or historically significant fiction and non-fiction writing

• Pitched so that a 12th standard student can read a passage in about five to seven minutes

• Comprehending the main point of the passage, and any arguments or viewpoints in it

• Drawing inferences and conclusions from the passage

• Summarising the passage

• Comparing and contrasting the different arguments or viewpoints set out in it

• Understanding the meaning of words and phrases in the context in which they are used

The full English Language breakdown covers the question types and the reading technique the 450 word benchmark demands.

Current Affairs, including General Knowledge

• Passages of up to 450 words each, derived from news, journalistic sources and other non-fiction writing

• Contemporary events of significance from India and the world

• Arts and culture

• International affairs

• Historical events of continuing significance

• Questions may examine legal information discussed in or related to the passage, but require no knowledge of law beyond the passage

This is the only section where prior knowledge occasionally helps, and the Consortium says so in those terms. The full Current Affairs breakdown covers the four topic areas.

Legal Reasoning

• Passages of around 450 words each, which may relate to fact situations or scenarios involving legal matters, public policy questions or moral philosophical enquiries

• Identifying and inferring the rules and principles set out in the passage

• Applying those rules and principles to various fact situations

• Understanding how changes to the rules or principles may alter their application to those fact situations

• No prior knowledge of law is required

• A general awareness of contemporary legal and moral issues helps in applying principles to fact scenarios

The third of those three skills is the one candidates meet least in practice material. The full Legal Reasoning breakdown covers all three.

Logical Reasoning

• A series of short passages of about 450 words each

• Recognising an argument, its premises and its conclusions

• Reading and identifying the arguments set out in the passage

• Critically analysing patterns of reasoning, and assessing how conclusions depend on particular premises or evidence

• Assessing how conclusions may be strengthened or weakened by an alteration in premises or supporting facts

• Inferring what follows from the passage and applying those inferences to new situations

• Drawing relationships and analogies, identifying contradictions and equivalence, and assessing the effectiveness of arguments

Each Logical Reasoning passage is followed by one or more questions, which is looser wording than the series of questions the other passage sections use. The full Logical Reasoning breakdown covers the skills tested.

Quantitative Techniques

• Short sets of facts or propositions, or other textual representations of numerical information, followed by a series of questions

• Deriving, inferring and manipulating numerical information set out in those passages

• Applying 10th standard mathematical operations to that information

• Ratios and proportions

• Basic algebra

• Mensuration

• Statistical estimation

The smallest section at roughly 10 per cent, and the only one with no stated passage length. The full Quantitative Techniques breakdown covers the four named areas.

What is not in the syllabus

• No prior legal knowledge anywhere in the paper. The Consortium states this explicitly for Legal Reasoning

• No bare Acts, sections or case law to memorise

• No mathematics beyond 10th standard operations

• No sectional timing and no sectional cut-off

• No normalisation. The exam is a single offline sitting

• No descriptive or essay component

• No separate general knowledge section free of passages. Current Affairs is passage based like the rest

How to spend the time

Treat reading speed as the primary skill. One minute per question sounds comfortable until you account for four sections of 450 word passages, and the Consortium itself benchmarks a passage at five to seven minutes.

Because there is no sectional timing, passage selection decides the score. Judge a passage in the first twenty seconds on whether its questions look answerable, and move on if they do not. The marks are identical whichever passage they come from.

Legal Reasoning and Current Affairs together are half the paper. Neither rewards memorisation, and both reward being comfortable reading unfamiliar material quickly under pressure.

Negative marking at 0.25 means four wrong answers cancel a correct one, so a guess is worth taking once you can eliminate two options and not before. Browse the available CLAT UG practice papers.

Common mistakes

• Preparing from 150 question material, which describes a paper that has not been set since CLAT 2023

• Memorising bare Acts and case law for a section that requires no prior legal knowledge

• Reading every passage in full before looking at its questions

• Carrying a sectional strategy from the 150 question paper, where the time per question was 48 seconds rather than a minute

• Guessing blind at 0.25 a wrong answer

• Treating Current Affairs as a memory test, when it is passage based like the rest of the paper

• Leaving Quantitative Techniques entirely, when it is roughly 12 marks for 10th standard arithmetic

• Preparing mathematics beyond 10th standard operations

CLAT UG against AILET

NLU Delhi sits outside the CLAT system and runs its own entrance test, so candidates targeting it sit both. The papers differ more than most candidates expect.

AILET packs 150 questions into the same two hours, which is 48 seconds a question against CLAT’s full minute. It also drops legal reasoning and quantitative techniques entirely and puts nearly half its paper into logical reasoning.

LSAT India is the third route into several private law schools and a few NLUs. It is a pure aptitude test with no legal content, no current affairs and no quantitative section, it is delivered online under remote proctoring, and unlike CLAT and AILET it applies sectional timing.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are in CLAT UG?

120, each carrying one mark, in two hours. The paper moved from 150 questions to 120 from CLAT 2024 and has not changed since.

Is there negative marking in CLAT?

Yes. 0.25 marks are deducted for every wrong answer, so four wrong answers cancel one correct answer.

Do I need to know law before sitting CLAT?

No. The Consortium states that no prior knowledge of law is required to attempt the Legal Reasoning section, and that Current Affairs questions require no knowledge of law beyond the passage.

Is there sectional timing?

No. The two hours cover the whole paper and you may move between sections freely.

How long are the passages?

About 450 words in English Language, Legal Reasoning and Logical Reasoning, and up to 450 words in Current Affairs. Quantitative Techniques uses short sets of facts or numerical information with no stated length.

What mathematics is tested?

10th standard operations, named as ratios and proportions, basic algebra, mensuration and statistical estimation.

What is the eligibility for CLAT UG?

A pass in 10+2 or an equivalent examination with 45 per cent of marks, or 40 per cent for SC, ST and PwD candidates. Candidates sitting the qualifying examination may apply and must produce evidence of passing at the time of admission.

Is there an age limit?

No. There is no upper age limit for the undergraduate programme.

How are ties broken?

By higher marks in the component the Consortium calls Legal Aptitude, which is the Legal Reasoning section, then by higher age, then by a computerised draw of lots.

Is CLAT held online or offline?

Offline, as a pen and paper test, in a single sitting.

Is the paper normalised?

There is a single sitting, so there are no sessions to normalise across.

Which section carries the most questions?

Current Affairs including General Knowledge and Legal Reasoning are level, each at 28 to 32 questions and roughly 25 per cent of the paper.