I was never the sort of person who planned everything in advance. I preferred going with the flow. That is why when I was done with 10th grade, I was clueless about my future plans. I just knew that I did not want to study for the sake of studying. I wanted to study something that captivated my interest. After a week of deliberations, I finally decided to study law because it is a course which helps in exploring the unknown aspects of our own personality and helps in manifesting the perfection already in the person.
At that point of time, the next two big milestones for me were – the board examinations and CLAT.
In a society where qualifying IIT and NEET is considered as a “certificate of excellence”, taking up something called CLAT was an open invitation to advice (in particular, why I shouldn’t opt for CLAT) and numerous brickbats. But the combined effort of all these remarks provoked me to do better. Being a humanities student, I often got to hear that it was easy to manage CLAT preparation along with the humanities stream but I believe that when you love doing something, you don’t “manage” it, you just “enjoy” it.
In 11th grade, I didn’t take CLAT preparation seriously. That year passed away in a jiffy with some school shenanigans being the highlight. It was in 12th grade that I decided to change my gear and get out of my comfort zone. CLAT preparation was not smooth sailing for me. Mock scores were inconsistent, current affairs of a couple of months went unprepared and pre-board exams were looming over my head like a ticking time-bomb. I was not a champion who knew how to flirt with fine margins and walk on a tight rope but I had the patience to become one. I didn’t let mock scores scare me. I analyzed the mocks, filtered out the priority areas and worked on them.
During my boards, I did not stop taking mocks because they kept me in touch with the very essence of CLAT preparations i.e. practice. After my board examinations, I had two months exclusively to dedicate for CLAT. This was the crucial period, when I burnt the midnight oil. Hard work started reflecting in the mock scores which were ascending smoothly but this smooth sail got a bit slippery on May 2nd, 2019. I knew that CLAT was habitual of throwing surprises but CBSE was the new player in this game of surprises. It declared the board results way before than they were expected. I got 99.4% but it was not as pleasant as it seems. This result was a mixed bag of feelings for me. I was happy but because of this amazing result, people raised their expectations from me. They wanted me to perform equally well in CLAT. I tried to convince them that CLAT and boards were not identical twins in order to stop them from making comparisons. At that moment, for the first time in my life, I felt academically pressurized because until then, I was regarded as a mischievous girl, good for not many things. I found it hard to cope with that pressure and it disrupted my study plans because I got afraid of failure. But my parents made me understand that worrying does no good, it just makes us feel the same pressure twice. I gathered myself and got back on the path again. On the D-Day, I gave my best shot. I attempted a good number of questions and the result was even better.
Based on my understanding of CLAT, I can say that it is not just a test of your aptitude, practice or preparation; in fact, its alpha and omega is your temperament while attempting the paper and your control on your nerves i.e. how best can you restrain yourself from getting overexcited, if the paper seems easy or how you can stop yourself from getting disheartened, if it seems tough.
The first step towards solving a problem is to accept that it exists. There is no alternative to hard work. Be determined because it is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it. There is always room to do more. Just remember you have to aim above the mark to hit the mark.
Make your own roadmap because what suits someone may not suit you. We all don’t belong to the same book. Take any way, just strike the correct notes. And at the end, remember that CLAT is just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t just see the things that are and ask “why dream of the things that are not?” and answer that with a “why not?”
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.
