Common Law Admission Test
CLAT or Common Law Admission Test is a national-level entrance examination for admissions to undergraduate (“UG”) and postgraduate (“PG”) law programmes offered by 22 National Law Universities in India (NLUs). Several affiliate universities and organizations also use the CLAT exam for admissions and recruitment respectively. The CLAT exam which was originally held in the month of May till CLAT 2022 now happens in the month of December for students who are passing in the subsequent year. So it is important for CLAT aspirants to know knick and knack of CLAT Previous Year Question Papers.
CLAT Previous Year Cutoff
The CLAT cutoff is the minimum marks required by a candidate in the CLAT exam to get admission to top national law universities (NLUs). As per the previous year's trends, candidates who secure 100+ marks stand a good chance to be in the top 3 NLUs (86+ for reserved categories).
However, several factors like exam difficulty level, seat intake, answer key disparities, and the total number of shortlisted candidates influence the CLAT Previous Year Question Papers cut off every year. Therefore, we have shared all the important details related to CLAT Previous Year Question Papers Cut Off including the previous year's qualifying marks for the top NLUs, and opening and closing ranks for different categories. You must check these all to know the range of CLAT Previous Year Question Papers Cut Off marks that need to be scored to get shortlisted for the final admission process of the top NLUs.
Here is the CLAT 2022 cutoff of the top NLUs:
Name of the Institution |
Opening-Closing Ranks of different categories |
General |
OBC |
SC |
ST |
NLSIU Bengaluru |
1-85 |
88-638 |
431-2224 |
554-3428 |
NALSAR Hyderabad |
8-162 |
505-7849 |
1252-2761 |
3818-5158 |
WBNUJS Kolkata |
117-257 |
1989-111472 |
2503-4933 |
5084-7238 |
NLU Jodhpur |
70-344 |
- |
2318-5881 |
1727-7620 |
NLIU Bhopal |
241-451 |
771-1510 |
3618-4793 |
6076-10789 |
HNLU Raipur |
430 756 |
1721 1980 |
4918 8797 |
11785 12027 |
GNLU Gandhinagar |
175 430 |
752 1747 |
3779 6527 |
6155 12014 |
RMLNLU Lucknow |
377 756 |
902* 3568* |
4565* 10476 * |
15889* 19504* |
RGNLU Patiala |
437 1184 |
- |
6134 9434 |
6449 16179 |
CNLU Patna |
932 1498 |
1882* 9085* |
9825 18386* |
29956 29956* |
NUALS Kochi |
413 1315 |
2114* 20999* |
8411* 25640* |
16977* 16977* |
NLU Odisha |
470 1191 |
- |
5800 9726 |
13361 17417 |
NUSRL Ranchi |
933 1603 |
1386 2698 |
3540* 21084* |
13311 31604* |
TNNLS Tiruchirappalli |
807 1816 |
1770 3789 |
6909 12015 |
15682 16880 |
DSNLU Vishakhapatnam |
1002 1589 |
8881 11160 |
10847* 10847* |
24160* 24160* |
MNLU Nagpur |
999 1657 |
6293* 18196* |
16251* 36646* |
30004* 30479* |
MNLU Aurangabad |
1390 2323 |
19850* 34225 |
20505* 45669* |
44623- 46061* |
NLUJAA Guwahati |
1131 1979 |
5542* 39724* |
25357* 41911* |
16817* 40718* |
HPNLU Shimla |
1056 2302 |
- |
7229 12507 |
12778 22145 |
DNLU Jabalpur |
1314 2262 |
1647 3489 |
10967 12925 |
15638 22762 |
NLU Sonipat |
1094 2333 |
1917 4018 |
6448 12213 |
12177 23212 |
CLAT Mark Vs Rank
CLAT Score Range |
Rank Range |
No. of Candidates |
125-150 |
1 |
1 |
120-125 |
2-3 |
2 |
115-120 |
4-5 |
2 |
110-115 |
6 |
1 |
105-110 |
7-9 |
3 |
100-105 |
10-19 |
10 |
95-100 |
20-57 |
38 |
90-95 |
58-173 |
116 |
85-90 |
174-362 |
189 |
80-85 |
363-743 |
381 |
75-80 |
744-1411 |
668 |
70-75 |
1412-2318 |
907 |
65-70 |
2319-3572 |
1254 |
60-65 |
3573-5200 |
1628 |
55-60 |
5201-7284 |
2084 |
50-55 |
7285-9841 |
2557 |
45-50 |
9842-12994 |
3153 |
40-45 |
1299-16746 |
3752 |
35-40 |
16747-21135 |
4389 |
30-35 |
21136-26442 |
5307 |
25-30 |
26443-32188 |
5746 |
20-25 |
32189-38320 |
6132 |
15-20 |
38321-44066 |
5746 |
10-15 |
44067-48884 |
4818 |
5-10 |
48885-51683 |
2799 |
0-5 |
51684-52956 |
1273 |
No of Candidates
As per the data provided by the Consortium of National Law Universities for the year 2022, the candidates who had registered for the
CLAT UG exam in 2022 were over
70,000. However, the number of candidates who actually appeared for the exam was around
61,500.
Here’s approximate data of the number of candidates that register & appear for the exam:
Year |
Number of Candidates Registered
(Approx) |
Number of Candidates Appeared
(Approx) |
2020 |
75000 |
59000 |
2021 |
70000 |
60000 |
2022 |
72000 |
61500 |
CLAT Toppers Score
You can get a fair idea of a
good CLAT score from the following table.
Name |
Rank
CLAT 2023 |
Marks Obtained |
Abhinav Somani |
AIR 1 |
116.75 Marks |
Sahil Gupta |
AIR 2 |
112 Marks |
Piyush Gupta |
AIR 8 |
107.75 Marks |
Kshitika Tyagi |
AIR 12 |
106.75 Marks |
Priyam Mitra |
AIR 13 |
106.75 Marks |
Ayesha Khan |
AIR 17 |
105.75 Marks |
Arunav Ghosh |
AIR 40 |
101.75 Marks |
CLAT 2023 Analysis
The following are key highlights of the CLAT Entrance Exam 2023 held on 18TH December 2022:
-
93.6% of the candidates who registered for the CLAT UG exam sat in the actual hall.
-
The thumb rule for scoring a great score in English Language was to master English Themes, figures of speech and advanced vocabulary levels.
-
In CLAT 2023, many questions were asked to test the conceptual clarity of the topic of a student especially in the GK Section.
-
The General Knowledge section of CLAT 2023 was a bit difficult for a student who was preparing only current affairs for the GK portion. The questions asked were from a wide range to topics and included static Gk questions. An example from CLAT 2O23 original question paper – “Which computer defeated Gary Kasparov”. These types of questions in the CLAT Exam make it important for a candidate to prepare the GK section thoroughly on all counts i.e. Static GK as well as Current Affairs.
-
2-3 passages were simple and easily doable among all the passages asked in the GK section of CLAT 2023 as they were from topics hugely in news like FIFA World Cup 2022.
-
The Legal Reasoning section in CLAT exam was of moderate level. Almost all questions were easily solvable but if a student had read the passages before then in that case a time advantage over peers could be gained. For example questions based on Criminal Identification Act would be solved very easily by candidates who are well versed with the topic.
-
The Topics of Legal Reasoning have become very dynamic in nature rather than static. In earlier CLAT examinations, great impetus was put upon standard topics of CLAT like Contract, Torts, and Constitutional Law etc. The pattern has changed considerably now and the questions are asked from dynamic topics like Surrogacy, Consumer Protection Act, Electoral Bond etc.
-
A few questions based on traditional Law topics like Cruelty, Legal Aid were also asked in the exam but there ratio to the dynamic topic ratio is very less.
-
The Mathematics section of the CLAT 2022 exam was not only lengthy but the difficulty level was moderate to difficult for a student who is giving the CLAT exam from Humanities and Commerce Stream.
-
The first impression outside the exam hall and after exam of most students who appeared for CLAT 2023 was that the paper was lengthy and required great concentration of mind.
-
Overall CLAT Exam 2023 didn’t spring up new surprises except with a new pattern of questions in few unpredictable topics from General knowledge and Quantitative Techniques.
-
If we do a comparative analysis of CLAT 2023 with regard to CLAT 2022 exam, then this year's paper was more on the tougher side. There were certain passages which were easy but overall the paper was tougher than 2022. The analysis that can be drawn from CLAT 2023 for CLAT 2024 will be to prepare for long passages and dynamic topics.
CLAT 2022 Analysis
-
All the passages and questions that came in CLAT 2022 were on predictable lines and less lengthy than the previous year. This directly resulted in the number of attempts by students who were appearing as less difficulty level makes it easier to attempt more questions.
-
Compared with last year, the passages in the English language were easy. Both the length and difficulty level of passages were on easier side. The thing to be mastered in this section was vocabulary and identifying the various figures of speech and tones in the passage.
-
All the passages that were asked in the GK were straight forward and a student could have attempted at least 1 or 2 questions even without prior studies just with the help of negation. It could be done with simple knowledge and the marks could have been easily fetched. Overall nature of this section of CLAT exam was simple/easy and marks scoring.
-
Passages were based on ISRO, AFSPA, Ukraine-Russia conflict, Bangladesh visits of PM Modi etc which were in the news prominently 6 months before exam.
-
Legal Reasoning section of CLAT 2022 was not the one with surprises and standard questions from various topics like Hindu Marriage Act, IPC, Jurisdiction, and Contract Law were asked.
-
In Logical Reasoning, there were three passages based on topics such as mental Health, POCSO Act and Covid outbreak. The difficulty level of this section was more on the moderate side and students needed a fine eye to catch right answer.
-
Most of the questions were on standard topics like inference, strengthen and weaken, etc.
-
Quantitative Aptitude in CLAT 2022 was the easiest if compared to the previous years.
-
As the question paper was easy, the number of attempts for CLAT 2022 attempt was very high and the cut off for NLS also went up.
CLAT 2024 shall be conducted in online mode where the paper will have 150 questions from five different subjects including English (Comprehension), General Knowledge & Current Affairs, Elementary Mathematics (Numerical Ability), Legal Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. Scope and coverage of questions under different subject areas:
English including comprehension: The
English section will test the candidates' proficiency in English based on comprehension passages and grammar. In the comprehension section, candidates will be questioned on their understanding of the passage and its central theme, meanings of words used therein, etc. The grammar section requires correction of incorrect grammatical sentences, filling of blanks in sentences with appropriate words, etc.
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
|
General Knowledge and Current Affairs Section: The
General knowledge will be tested on the general awareness including static general knowledge. Questions on current affairs will test candidates on their knowledge of national and international current affairs.
Mathematics Section: This section will test candidate's knowledge on
Elementary mathematics, i.e., maths taught up to 10th Class/standard.
Legal Aptitude Section: This section will test candidate's interest towards study of law, research aptitude and problem solving ability. Questions may include legal propositions (described in the paper), and a set of facts to which the said proposition has to be applied. Some propositions may not be "true" in the real sense, candidates will have to assume the "truth" of these propositions and answer the questions accordingly.
Logical Reasoning Section: The purpose of the
logical reasoning section is to test the candidate's ability to identify patterns, logical links and rectify illogical arguments. It may include a variety of logical reasoning questions such as syllogisms, logical sequences, analogies, etc. The section does not include the questions from Visual reasoning.