CLAT 2016: Exam Analysis

The Common Law Admission Test- 2016 was conducted by RGNUL, Patiala on 8th of May from 3 PM- 5 PM. As per the students CLAT 2016 was quite easy, perhaps easiest of all the previous CLAT papers. RGNUL ensured that the registration process was smooth and hassle free and included specific time period for representation relating to the answer key. This has been done for the first time. The enforcement of the BCI notification by the Courts has ensured that, there was no age limit this year as well.

GK:

The difficulty level was easy to moderate. 90% questions mostly followed the mainstream current affairs news only. Those students, who did follow the newspapers would have performed very well in this section and would be fairly comfortable while solving this section. Most of the questions were easy and direct. The following questions came in the CLAT 2016 paper (memory based):

1. International Consumer Rights’ Day?
   March 15th
2. Minimum qualification for Panchayati election upheld by which state? Haryana
3. Which state was to first to make gender education compulsory? Telangana
4. Who won Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2015? Sania Mirza
5. Maximum number of smokeless villages? Karnataka
6. Who lit the Olympic torch in Greece ahead of the Olympic Games 2016? Katerina Lehou
7. Chairman of National Green Tribunal? Justice Swatenter Kumar
8. Femina Miss India 2016 Who is going to represent India in the global competition?
   Priyadarshini Chaterjee
9. First ever woman gymnast from India to qualify for Olympics? Dipa Karmarkar
10. Chairman of National Human Rights Commission? HL Dattu
11. What is Mars called? Red Planet
12. How many redundant laws were recently repealed? 1053
13. What was the 100th Amendment to the Constitution? Exchange of certain enclave territories with Bangladesh
14. Chairperson of NITI Aayog? Narendra Modi
15. First blind-friendly railway station in India?
    Mysore
16. Where did India sign the Paris deal? New York, USA
17. Paris Conference was signed in which month? December 2015
18. Currency of Thailand? Thai Baht
19. Punjabi is in which no. in usage in Canadian Parliament? 3rd
20. First developed nation to default on an International Monetary Fund loan? Greece
21. First parliament to run fully on solar power? Pakistan
22. Indomitable Spirit was written by? APJ Abdul Kalam
23. Fastest planet that revolves around the sun?
    Mercury
24. PAN required for transactions that exceed the amount of? Rs. 200000
25. What is ‘Start Up India’ for? Entrepreneurs activity and promotion
26. What is Setu Bharatam scheme? Project aims to make all highways free of railway crossings.
27. Who won a medal in long jump – Mayookah Johnny
28. Beyond the lines – An Autobiography – Kuldeep Nayar
29. Crime and Punishment is a book by – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
30. Which three states will have election in a single session on may 2016 –
    Puducherry, Tamil and Kerela
31. Name of duke and duchess of Cambridge - Williams and Midleton.
32. President of Srilanka – Maithripala Sirisena
33. Who becomes president when both president and Vice President die? - CJI
34. Which Court ordered floor test in Uttarakhand - Supreme Court
35. President tenders resignation to whom - Vice President
36. Finance minister of India(YES THIS WAS THERE) – Arun Jaitley
37. Country with 6 deputy Prime Ministers -
    Nepal
38. The sessions of Parliament are convened at the discretion of - President
39. Official language of India - Hindi in devanagiri script and English
40. How many cities have been selected for smart cities - 20
41. What constitutes the Indian Parliament? President, LokSabha, RajyaSabha.
42. Fastest test century - Brendon Mccullum
43. 45.99th Amendment repealed - NJAC
44. 1st country to clone a calf - India
45. Be prepared is the motto of –
    Scout

A good attempt in this section would be around 46 questions with a net score around 42.

Anirudh Vijay, whose CLAT center was in Jaipur, stated that, “Major portion was from Current Affairs of 2016, in fact a question was asked about the Uttarakhand Issue of 6th May!” Anirudh attempted around 160 questions.

Legal Aptitude:

Much to the relief of all the students, the pattern of Legal Aptitude section was different from the last year. Out of the 50 questions, 35 were Principle- Facts and 15 were Legal GK questions. The majority of the students stated that the Legal Reasoning questions were easy to moderate and were not time consuming. All the legal reasoning questions only had a single principle and were easy to answer.

Shashank Suresh, whose center was in Gaziabad and attempted 186 shared that, ‘The questions were a mix from contracts, torts and criminal law. The options given were pretty basic too so as to not confuse the students.’

Legal GK was pretty basic and the questions that were asked included 100th Amendment, 99th amendment, chairman of Niti Aayog.

"Overall, a good attempt in this section would have been around 42- 46 questions with a net score of around 40- 42."

Logical Reasoning:

This section was a bit tougher than the other sections and difficulty level would be moderate. There were questions on Statement Assumption, Cause and Effect, Analogy, Odd Word Out, Syllogism, Logical consistency.

Parv Kaushik, who took his paper in Gaziabad and attempted 192 questions, expressed that, “Logic was moderate. it had quite a lot of critical reasoning, statement assumption and cause and effect.The series was also easy. the only reason I would call it moderate and not easy was because of the dominance of critical, because one cant be 100% sure of the answer in them.”

There was one question on visual reasoning as well wherein there were a set of four squares with a pattern, we had to guess the fifth, though the official syllabus has specifically excluded that. Those who practiced from the past papers, would have find this section easy. An attempt of 33- 35 questions and an overall score of around 30 would be good.

One question which definitely created confusion in the mind of the students is, “Choose the odd one out

1) CJI 2) Attorney General 3) Solicitor General 4) Advocate General”

"Overall, a good attempt in this section would have been around 34- 36 questions with a net score of around 32- 34."

English:

Many students felt that English was the easiest section of all. There was a passage comprising of 10 questions, Idioms, Spellings and Vocab based questions. Meanings of words such as accomplished, endorsement, Pedagogy, ab initio, alibi, persona non grata were asked. There were no surprises this time and the questions were very easy. This was the easiest section. An ideal attempt in this section would be 36- 38 and with a net score of 33- 36.

Maths:

This section was tricky and lengthiest of all. Questions were from Simple Interest, Ratio, Percentage, Probability, Averages, Profit and Loss, Clocks, etc. Attempt should have been around 12- 14, with a score of around 10.

Nevertheless, this paper was a breeze of fresh air after the CLAT 2015 paper. Almost everyone was happy after the exam. Considering the paper, an attempt of around questions would be good. The paper with the answer key would be released on 12^th May.

All the best

Mohit Diwakar is a law student at NUJS who mentors CLAT aspirants through his Facebook Forum CLATHead.