It’s Going to be Alright, Kiddo! – Aniket Chauhaan (AIR 65 – CLAT 2019)

Aniket Chauhaan is a first year student of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

I have a friend here, at NALSAR, who had a dream two weeks into college. The dream was that he had flunked CLAT and couldn’t get into any of the NLUs. Now, this is my problem with CLAT. In essence, CLAT is an aptitude test. More specifically, the 2019 exam was an aptitude test, albeit an easy one. There was no Legal GK and other than General Knowledge, there was nothing you could have memorized. Yet, the way people approach their preparation, I feel, is unhealthy and different from what the exam demands. That is a subjective opinion and I feel smart work beats hard work, any day, in this case. This may feel quite misleading to many of you but this is my honest take on everything I witnessed in the past two years.

Now, this small piece is not going to be about how you should prepare or strategize for CLAT 2020. There are always enough people to tell you how things work – what material to refer to, the attempting order of the sections and so on. I never studied a lot for CLAT. And I’ll be completely honest, if this question paper was different, my rank would possibly be in the thousands. That is, if it were an information heavy paper. I did not sacrifice much. Watched the GoT Season Eight’s episodes the day they released and went out with friends to watch movies. I wasn’t the one who studied for 8 (some claim even 14) hours in the last month. Moreover, I never could touch 145 in mocks. The only thing I made sure was that I attempted mock tests religiously. And I guess that helped me immensely. But that’s about it.

There are people who put in a lot of work to get where they are and I have immense respect for them. But what people do not talk about is what I mentioned in the first paragraph: that CLAT is an aptitude test. The test has been over-glorified to a very large extent. It is manageable. It can be done. You do not need to become a walking zombie and isolate yourself. I have seen people make those mistakes and it did not pan out well.

Don’t let this fool you into believing that CLAT is a cake walk though. Far from it. A lot of where I’m coming from is the fact that my English was relatively good and I never truly had time management issues. But I have indulged in some mistakes that others should not. The biggest one: never think of your mock ranks. If I got a 60 rank, I would think of the 59 people better than me. Then, I would think of all those people multiplied by the number of major coaching centres. And clearly, I would not make it to the top six. I do not know why but I have seen that that is not how it works.

Another mistake I have seen is that people try to become amazing in one section while ignoring some other section. Be balanced. Be good in all the sections before you try becoming a master of one or two sections. Those who say they can “compensate” one section’s score by maximizing another are taking huge risks as especially this year, it wouldn’t have worked because all sections were quite easy.

One thing that you’ll hear often (and I completely agree with) is the fact that you need to work out a plan that suits you. Give a lot of mocks, identify weak areas and just work upon them. It is a cliché tip but it works like a charm, if you’re honest about it.

Also, people become smitten by the idea of CLAT but forget about the end: law. CLAT is not law. Know what you are working towards. I am not trying to dissuade you but see that CLAT is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I have seen this happen with JEE as well. I have a friend, who knew he wanted to get into an IIT (and he did) but had no clue what branch he wanted to study or where he wanted to go from there. Don’t be like that. Things may be very different from how you imagine them to be. NLUs are romanticized. You are in the company of some amazing people and that is the best part about it but if you feel that once you’re here, your life’s going to be set, you’re far, far from the truth.

There is an uncertainty attached with any competitive exam. It’s higher in this case because of innumerable reasons (read: the infamous history of the exam). Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Be dedicated in your preparation but have a back-up plan. My back up were my board marks (98%; I’m flexing but yeah). That way, when I entered the hall to write CLAT, I did not have the pressure of being in a do-or-die situation. One of my seniors told me that you may, on a good day, break into the top fifty whereas, on a bad day, you might not even break into the top five hundred. In that sense, this fear is a double edged sword. It can force you to work harder while it might disillusion and discourage you as well. Choose how you wield it. Losing motivation, getting low scores and stagnating are all a part of the process. They will happen to you. Smile and move on. Don’t take them to heart but don’t let this advice make you complacent as well.

Lastly, after all this advice I’m entitled to give cause of getting a good rank, the most important one is to have fun. CLAT days are good and hectic and in retrospect, quite gratifying.

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.