Last Month’s Strategy: An Opinion

We get a lot of questions with regard to the dilemma some people are in.

“Is one month of studies good enough to crack CLAT?”

“Do you think I will make it if I take the LST crash course?”

“How do I go about studying after my boards?”

I understand the heightened sense of purpose and urgency that most people feel at this juncture. So here I am again trying to give you a little gyan on CG as to how to go about preparing this last month and a half that you would have before CLAT.

For those of you who are writing your boards this year please get over fast with your drinking bouts and binges and get into the groove for studying. So how exactly do you study?

The vital thing is to brush up on all your concepts. Read all the Legal concepts. Glance through the various tips and tricks for maths and logic. Only once when your base is strong can you build on it. Remember the foundation of a building is the most important part of the construction. Be clear with your concepts. Read your GK. Compendiums should be revised and try to have a cogent train of thought connecting events and news.

The Past, Present and the Future

The next step is to solve all the past papers. Time yourself and get hold of an OMR sheet from somewhere. If you cannot, then write in to me and I shall send you one. Practise the ‘art of bubbling’. Believe me, it does help. A simple trick here is to start from the centre of the bubble and draw concentric circles around it. This has been proven to be faster and more accurate than other methods. When you solve past papers and you find yourself unsure of a concept read on it as soon as you are don’t with your paper. That’s a full-proof way to cover all subjects. Once you do all NALSAR NLS WBNUJS NLUD and CLAT papers you will have done at least all the various types of questions that can be conceived of.

Psychology of the Individual, a Wodehousean concept.

When you read a particular concept try to think if you were setting the paper then what different angles could you question on. Try to find out the various bends and corners in a topic. There, you have the key to the examiner’s psychology. PG Wodehouse always said through Jeeves that it is of the essence to understand the “psychology of the individual”. If you know the examiner’s psychology you are already a step ahead of him. It may not work always, like our illustrious Professor Dhanda says, “Don’t try to second guess me, ‘cause I will change my mind.”

Attacking the Paper: Formulating a strategy

Don’t try mindlessly ‘bubbling’ as soon as you get the paper in hand. You must have a strategy in hand as to how to go about ‘attacking’ the paper.

Sun Tzu said: “The art of war is of vital importance :

It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry

which can on no account be neglected.”

Thus have your own strategy in hand as to the order or sequence in which you shall go about answering the paper– which section will you attempt first. This is something which if you have not figured out by now, then in the month ahead, while doing all the practice papers try to figure it out. There is no one size fits all theory in this regard. It has to be based on your strengths and weaknesses.

Remember the last leg of the race is the most important. It is the deciding factor whether you shall come out with flying colours or be in the ranks of ‘also rans’.

“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles a thousand victories.”

-Sun Tzu, “Art of War”

Best.

Sandipan De.

sandipan@clatgyan.com