The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) was conducted on 10 May, 2015 in 42 cities across India. It was conducted by Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow this year, marking the debut of the test in the online mode. Admissions to the 16 National Law Universities (NLUs) are processed through the test. About 45,000 applicants had registered for Online CLAT 2015 and more than 42,000 took the test.

The test pattern is given below -

Category	Section-I	Section-II	Section-III	Section-IV	Section-V
Test Area	English including Comprehension	General Knowledge & Current Affairs	Elementary Mathematics	Legal Aptitude	Logical Reasoning
No. of Questions	40	50	20	50	40
Marking Scheme	1	1	1	1	1
Negative Marking	-0.25	-0.25	-0.25	-0.25	-0.25
Total Duration	120 Min

The test, on the whole, tilted towards the difficult, with a lot of unexpected questions figuring across the sections. The section-wise analysis is as below -

English including Comprehension

Vocabulary had a lion's share of the question types in the test, with questions on synonyms, analogies, cloze passage, contextual meaning and confusables. There were two Reading Comprehension passages, a long one with 10 questions on it and a shorter one with 3 questions on it. There were two types of grammar questions - error identification and marking the incorrect sentences. Many students felt the section was a bit challenging, especially the vocabulary component of the section. Around 30-32 could be considered a good score in the section.

General Knowledge & Current Affairs

The section was a mixed bag, with an equal distribution between static GK and current affairs. A well-prepared student who follows current affairs would not have found it too challenging. Around 36-38 could be considered a good score in the section.

Elementary Mathematics

There were 6 questions in Numbers which required strong understanding of the concepts of L.C.M, remainder theorem, last digits, etc. Two problems in simplifications were based on indices. Probability and P&C problems were of moderate difficulty level.Three problems in simple equation were easy. There was one problem from Time and Distance which was difficult. There were 5 questions from Data Interpretation, which were perceived to be simple. Around 12-14 could be considered a good score.

Legal Aptitude

This section threw a major surprise as Legal GK made a re-appearance after several years. There were around 15 Principle-Facts questions, 10 Assertion-Reasoning questions, and the rest based on legal GK. This section would therefore have turned out to be a scoring area and a key differentiator to those who prepared well on the legal GK terminology and current legal affairs in the country. Around 36-38 could be considered a good score.

Logical Reasoning

This was the trickiest part of the paper with new and interesting question types. There were 3 Fact, Inference and Judgement questions, 3 questions from Data Sufficiency and 5 syllogism questions. There was one question on direction sense, three on blood relations, one on linear arrangement and one on calendars. Eight questions were from coding and decoding. These were the easier questions.

There were two sets of puzzles, both time-consuming and difficult. The first puzzle was about a leaked answer key and eight students who were suspected to have the key. The second puzzle was regarding four friends who interchange their belongings among each other. Not many students would have had the luxury of time to have been able to solve these sets. Around 26-28 could be considered a good score in the section.

Overall Analysis

While NLSUI Bangalore and NALSAR Hyderabad had general category cut-offs of 157 and 152 last year, these may fall by 15 to 20 marks this year, given the higher difficulty-level of this year's test. An overall score of 135+ is expected to be the cutoffs for the top 5 NLUs.

Results will be published on www.clat.ac.in on May 20. T.I.M.E. wishes you the best!