CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) is one of the most prominent law entrance exams in India. Every year, thousands of law aspirants appear for this exam. The national-level law entrance exam requires rigorous preparation to secure a seat in the top National Law Universities (NLUs) of the country.

Practicing the CLAT previous year question papers is an essential step towards the preparation for any competitive examination as it can help them get familiar with the exam pattern, marking scheme, and types of questions asked in the exam. While preparing for the CLAT exam as well, one cannot miss out on this important step.

In this article, we will discuss how the CLAT previous year question papers play a crucial role in shaping the preparation strategy for the CLAT exam.

How does it help you?


Practicing through the CLAT previous year question papers is a highly effective strategy for CLAT aspirants to achieve their desired results. By analyzing the Smartkeeda CLAT previous year's papers, you can get an idea of the weightage of different varieties of questions such as passage-based questions, miscellaneous, score boosters, and touch-me-nots. Additionally, it also helps you understand the difficulty level of the questions asked in the CLAT exam & you prepare for surprises that may arise in the exam.

By analyzing your performance in the CLAT previous year question papers, you can identify the sections where you need to put in more effort and practice.  This information can help you allocate your study time accordingly and focus on the sections that require more attention. Moreover, you can estimate the minimum score required to secure admission to the top National Law Universities. This can help you set a target score and work towards achieving it.

Familiarizing with Exam Patterns and Question Types

Going through CLAT previous year question papers for the CLAT exam is an effective way to understand the exam pattern and the types of questions that have been asked in the past. You can identify the questions that are frequently asked in the CLAT exam and the ones that require deeper conceptual understanding. You can also get an idea of the exam's marking scheme, negative marking policy, mode of the examination, and the topics with the highest weightage familiarizing you with the nuances of the CLAT exam.

For example, the following table prepared from the previous year CLAT papers can give you a fair idea of the number of questions asked from each section, ideal attempts, and the difficulty level of each section:

 
Section No. of Questions Ideal Attempts Level of Difficulty
English 40 25-27 Easy-Moderate
G.K./ Current Affairs 50 37-40 Moderate-Difficult
Elementary Mathematics 15 7-9 Difficult
Logical Reasoning 30 26-27 Moderate
Legal Aptitude 40 35-37 Easy-Moderate
Total 150 113-120 Moderate

Moreover, practicing with Smartkeeda CLAT previous year question papers can help you get a fair idea of the types of questions that are generally asked and the time required to solve them. This can help you develop a time management strategy and improve your speed and accuracy for the exam. Additionally, going through CLAT previous year question papers can help you understand the level of difficulty of the exam. This information can help you prepare a strategic study plan and allocate your study time efficiently.

Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

Practicing the CLAT previous year question papers of the CLAT exam is an effective way to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Through this approach, you can easily identify the areas where you excel and the areas that require your immediate attention. This can help you work on your weak areas and convert them into your strengths.

  1. When you practice CLAT previous year papers, you can identify the topics and concepts that you are good at. These are your strengths, and you can use them to score more marks in the exam. By identifying your strengths, you can allocate more time to practice the topics that you are already good at, which can help you boost your overall score.
 
  1. On the other hand, by analyzing your performance in the CLAT previous year papers, you can identify the topics and concepts that you struggle with. These are your weaknesses, and you can work on them to improve your score. By identifying your weaknesses, you can allocate more time to practice these topics and concepts, which can help you improve your performance in the exam.
Furthermore, by practicing the CLAT previous year question papers, you can understand the types of mistakes that you tend to make. For example, you may struggle with time management, or you may make calculation errors. By understanding the types of questions that have been asked in the past, you can identify the topics where you lack proficiency and need to focus more. This can help you improve your overall performance in the exam.

Improving Time Management and Test-taking Strategies

Effective time management is a contributing factor in exam preparation. CLAT, like other competitive exams, is a time-bound exam, therefore, it is essential to develop strategies to solve questions quickly and accurately. Attempting the previous year papers of the CLAT exam at Smartkeeda can be extremely helpful in improving your time management skills. Solving CLAT previous year question papers under simulated exam conditions can help you identify the best way to manage your time during the actual exam.

By attempting CLAT previous year papers, you can develop personalized test-taking strategies for your CLAT exam. Suppose, you are good at English and GK section but you get nervous at the Quant part. I would recommend you approach English and GK during the first quarter of the exam. As per my experience, there are certain benefits of beginning with the most confident section in an exam:
  • It would help you to build enough confidence to attempt the rest of the paper.
  • Solving the easy questions first will enable you to move quickly through each section of the test.
  • You’ll be able to save an ample amount of time for the quant section. Using this strategy, you can easily score in your not-so-good section as well.
  • You can save time for the tricky questions and attempt them on the next go.

By attempting CLAT previous year question papers, you can identify the questions that consume a significant amount of time and practice them separately to develop better approaches to those questions.  You can learn to allocate the right amount of time to different sections and questions, depending on their difficulty level. This can help you develop strategies that can drastically reduce your question-solving time and improve your score in the CLAT exam.

Boosting Confidence and Reducing Exam Anxiety


Confidence plays a crucial role in enhancing performance in any exam and solving the CLAT previous year question papers is an excellent way to build confidence. By knowing what to expect, you can approach the exam with greater confidence and reduce the anxiety associated with the unknown. Scoring well in CLAT previous year question papers gives you a sense of accomplishment and boosts your confidence in your preparation for the actual exam.
Moreover, when you solve the CLAT previous year question papers, you can develop a sense of familiarity with the exam format and the time constraints. When you are familiar with the exam pattern, the difficulty level of the exam, the type of questions asked, and the strategy required to solve them, you are in a better position to tackle and clear the exam with flying colors. Also, you feel more prepared, and your anxiety levels are automatically reduced. This can lead to improved performance and higher scores in the actual exam.
 

Learning from Mistakes and Analyzing Performance

 
"Practice makes perfect," and the more you practice the CLAT previous year papers, the better your chances of performing well in the actual exam. Therefore, once you have completed the paper, you should go to the analysis section and evaluate your performance. You should dive deep into the following areas while analyzing your performance in the CLAT previous year papers:
  • A solution to the questions you marked incorrectly.
  • Check if it was a calculation or conceptual mistake.
  • A solution to your correct attempts to see if there is a better & time-saving method to solve those questions.
  • Solutions to the question you skipped.

  • See the time spent by you on your wrong attempts and list those topics.
This analysis can help you to identify your mistakes and the questions that you got wrong or found difficult to answer. By going through these questions, you can understand where you went wrong and what was the correct approach to solve them. This analysis can help you to learn from your mistakes and avoid making similar mistakes in the actual exam.
 

Conclusion

 
We hope you have gained insight into the advantages of the previous year's question papers and understand the importance of solving them before your actual exam. Although it is an effective tool for your preparation, it is not the only way to achieve success in the CLAT exam. Hard work and dedication are equally significant in acing this highly competitive exam. Therefore, we recommend you put in consistent efforts in preparing for the CLAT exam and get a decent rank to secure admission to your dream NLU.
 
Click here to attempt CLAT previous year question paper now!!

 


Author : Rohit Sharma

Hi, I am Rohit Sharma, the head of the Law exams vertical at Smartkeeda and an alumnus of NLU Punjab. Having successfully cleared the CLAT exam twice, I am currently engaged in teaching Legal Reasoning on the LawEx YouTube channel. Moreover, I contribute by writing blogs that are specifically tailored to the CLAT exams.