Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee – Utkarsh Mani Tripathi (AIR 50 – AILET 2019, AIR 89 – CLAT 2019)

Utkarsh Mani Tripathi is a first year student of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

On the day that the results for CLAT were to be declared, I could not control myself. Bursting at the seams, I wheeled around in my chair every time I could, and tried to see if the results were finally available but every time I checked, they weren’t. An hour passed in sheer desperation and sorrow. What if I…? No. Couldn’t think of thinking that. At about 7 PM, a flurry of sweaty fingers on the keyboard and voila, a two-digit rank! Wow. I simply couldn’t believe it. NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad!

I burst into a million screams of joy! Confetti and streamers (of course, imaginary ones) flew into the air.

I think what did it for me was absolute dedication to my purpose. I had no other choice, so to speak. Until August, I’d wake up at about 7, wonder out loud the reasons behind my decision to take a drop year and then, get back to studying.

The foremost aspect that you must take into consideration should be your unwavering focus on your weaknesses and strengths. The people I talked to told me that I shouldn’t work too hard till about August, lest I wanted to burn myself out! In a way, I understood what they were saying. It’d look quite “inane”, juggling legal and logical sections, bleeding sweat when the exam was about a year away. But believe me when I say it: these are the (and I must borrow a phrase that is perennially attached to the GK section) “make-or-break” months of your CLAT prep. Of course, if you have your boards along with CLAT, you may have to start even earlier. But that’s no issue. The initial months, in any case, must be devoted to getting habituated to the whole rubric and the majestic art of bubbling.

Bubbling may look like child’s play but it’s not. You mark one bubble wrongly and you can curse the universe all you want but you’re going to lose that mark for no reason. And the  accompanied risk of negative marking. Nobody wants that.

Legal Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Mathematics and English are the sections that require an absolute grasp of the basics, and you need to build solidly on that. Get some great practise books. If you can afford a coaching and feel the need of it, please go for it. I didn’t have one. And I can tell that coaching classes can’t guarantee your success unless you work hard yourself.

It’s all fun and games until the one section with the scythe pops up. General Awareness! Pro tip: it’s not at all “general”! I believe this is the one area in which coaching institutes can help you well. I never perused the newspaper for anything more than glazing over the news items. In other words, I never made notes from newspaper articles. It’s a fruitless endeavour: selecting the most relevant tidbits; it never worked for me. The best way out of this dilemma would be to rely on the GK material provided by good sources, such as Clat Possible, Career Launcher and our very own CLATGyan.

Fix your mind on two or three sources and read (and re-read, then re-read) them till the cows come home. Repetition over new material should be your priority. And also, if you can manage it (even if you cannot, I’d highly recommend it), please make daily GK notes. They help IMMENSELY. I can’t stress this enough. Along with that, I must mention what I did to tackle various things that I found difficult. Vocabulary, everyday. Mathematics: mental. Logic: on your fingertips. Legal aptitude: read the text as if you were Sherlock Holmes.

And, another short tip, don’t waste your time. Time is an asset, even more so in the case of CLAT. At the end of the year, every single day must be accounted for. Lazying around is not an option. Five years of wholesome goodness or trenchant tragedies? You’ll have to decide. Everything can wait while you brush up on your concepts and get ready to take on the exam. Hover for now. Just keep rowing.

A mysteriously dreaded aspect of CLAT prep is the mock-taking exercise. So many people (including yours truly) mistake mock performance for actual CLAT performance and end up hosting a sob fest or setting fire to everything they touch with their enthusiasm.

Good mock, bad mock – at the end of the day, it’s a mock, silly! It’s meant to make you nervous and worked up. Imagine, if the same mock you gave yesterday showed up as the actual paper. How would you fare? Fairly well? Nothing to be proud of?

Do you get what I’m saying? Take your mocks seriously, but do not forget that mocks aren’t the end of the world. Mocks serve many purposes. They help you pinpoint your weaknesses, so that you can work on them before the next mock and not make blunders in those type of questions ever again. They teach you time management! Nothing beats this. You must learn how to “beat the minute hand in its own game”.

Mocks, of course, help you benchmark your preparation. There should be a dream score (keeping in mind the difficulty of the mock). Simple example: CLAT 2019. CLAT 2018’s topper scored somewhere around 159; with the same score in CLAT 2019, he’d get NLU-Jodhpur. Scary, right? Now you get the drift.

At the end of the day, you must try your hardest to not get depressed. If it’s not working out, try reasoning it out and find solutions. Do not hesitate to ask others for help, even if they are people you don’t know personally. I messaged a senior in NLS for some tips, and she helped me generously. I can’t tell you how scared and scarred someone can get during CLAT prep. But what questions matter are: do you stop rowing? Or do you sail on, bullishly indifferent, with the massive confidence of a continent? I got those kind of pick-me-ups whenever I visited the NALSAR website.

Set realistic daily goals, keep yourself on your toes, don’t get worked up, and don’t waste your time on things that you can do later (say, after getting into a good NLU). Keep your eyes on the goal, breathe a fiery breath, and don’t let go.

Please leave a comment below in case you have further any queries with regards to preparation. In case you are desperately in need of a Personalized Action Plan, please read this.