The CLAT 2026 exam is all set to be conducted on December 7, 2025 and students must have a well structured preparation plan to ace the examination. This page provides students with comprehensive information on how to prepare for the CLAT exam from scratch. The CLAT 2026 will be a mandatory gateway for students aspiring to study law into NLUs and other reputed law institutes.
Students must be focused on other factors along with CLAT preparation to obtain a valid score such as understanding the exam pattern, learning about syllabus, reading previous year paper analysis, going through previous year question papers, etc. as this will help them be more familiar with exam difficulty level. Those who are figuring out how to prepare for the CLAT exam must begin with creating a daily time table and keeping it realistic as well.
The next step toward CLAT preparation will be to build a strong foundation of each exam section including Legal Reasoning, General Knowledge, Logical Reasoning, English, and Quantitative Techniques. To learn more about how to clear CLAT exam if you're a beginner, kindly refer to the following.
How to Prepare for the CLAT Exam ?
Lets start with understanding the CLAT exam pattern, section wise weightage and syllabus to be more aware of question paper design. The following tables separately contain the complete CLAT exam pattern, syllabus and sectional weightage.
CLAT Exam Pattern 2026:
Category | Details |
Time duration | 2 hours |
Mode | Offline mode (pen and paper-based mode) |
Conducting Body | Consortium of National Law Universities (CNLU) |
Type of questions | Objective-type questions |
Number of questions | CLAT UG – 120 questionsCLAT PG – 120 questions |
Total marks in CLAT | 120 marks (Both CLAT UG and CLAT PG) |
CLAT UG marking scheme | Correct answer – 1 markIncorrect answer – 0.25 marks deductionUnattempted questions – No negative marking |
Language | English |
CLAT Section Wise Weightage 2026:
Section Approx. | Questions | Weightage (%) |
Legal Reasoning | 28 to 32 | 25% |
Current Affairs / GK | 28 to 32 | 25% |
Logical Reasoning | 22 to 26 | 20% |
English Language | 22 to 26 | 20% |
Quantitative Techniques | 10 to 12 | 10% |
CLAT Syllabus Breakdown:
Section | Key Topics |
Legal Reasoning | Legal principles, contracts, criminal law basics, constitutional law, torts, case analysis |
Current Affairs / GK | National & international events, important dates, government schemes, awards, sports, science & technology |
Logical Reasoning | Critical reasoning, arguments, conclusions, cause & effect, syllogisms, puzzles |
English Language | Reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, sentence correction, idioms & phrases |
Quantitative Techniques | Basic arithmetic, ratios, percentages, averages, profit & loss, time & work, data interpretation |
How to Prepare for CLAT From Scratch?
Students can follow the month wise CLAT preparation plan provided below.
August 2025 - The Foundation and Familiarization stage
- Understand the exam pattern, syllabus and marking scheme
- Collect various study materials like recommended books, CLAT past year questions and mock test access.
- Start Legal Reasoning Elementary Level including legal principles and landmark judgments.
- Start daily English comprehension (2 passages a day) and vocabulary building.
- Start Current Affairs from January 2025 and monthly current affairs compilation.
- Start Quantitative Techniques elementary level including percentages, ratios and averages.
- Start Logical Reasoning elementary level including statement and conclusion and assumptions.
September 2025 - Getting to Conceptual Understanding Stage
- Finish Legal Reasoning Elementary level including whole contracts, torts, criminal law and basic understanding of constitutional law.
- Reading daily news and weekly and monthly current affairs notes.
- Practice data interpretation of Quantitative Techniques.
- Start critical reasoning including strengthening and weakening an argument.
- Take the first full length mock test at the end of month for a self assessment.
October 2025 - Intense Training
- Increase mock tests to once a week
- Start timed section wise practice for both speed and accuracy
- Focus on Legal Reasoning case based questions
- Continue current affairs and review the previous months
- English: Practice grammatical errors and comprehension under time restraints
- Quant: Work on time and work, profit and loss, simple and compound interest.
November 2025 - Full Length mocks and Revision
- Take 2 to 3 mocks a week and do a detailed analysis of the errors from the mocks
- Redo all the Legal Reasoning principles and current affairs January to October
- Put together 1 page summary sheets for GK, formulas and reasoning methods
- Practice mixed question sets, as it builds adaptability
- Focus on the weak areas identified through the previous mocks
December 1 - 6, 2025 - final revision
- No new topics, only revision
- Revisit the short notes and important events from the GK portion
- Take 2-3 light mocks, to get you use to the exam temperament
- Rest well & relax before the exam.
CLAT 2026 Preparation | Daily Routine
Students may follow the daily routine provided below to prepare for the CLAT exam 2026. The following table contains each step and time allocation for students to enhance their overall CLAT preparation.
Month | Daily Tasks | Time Allocation |
Aug 2025 | Learn pattern and syllabus, basics in Legal, English (2 passages), CA from Jan 2025 | 2 hrs Legal, 1.5 hrs English, 1 hr CA |
Sep 2025 | Legal advanced topics, CA notes, Quant DI, Critical Reasoning | 2 hrs Legal, 1 hr Quant, 1 hr Reasoning |
Oct 2025 | Weekly mocks, timed section practice, focus Legal case based | 2 hrs Practice, 1 hr Legal, 1 hr Review |
Nov 2025 | 2 to 3 mocks per week, revise Legal and CA, summary sheets | 2 hrs Revision, 1 hr Practice, 1 hr Mocks |
Dec 1 to 6 2025 | Final revision, light mocks, rest | 1.5 hrs Revision, 1 hr Mocks, Relax |
Best Book for CLAT Exam | Recommended by Toppers
Candidates figuring out how to prepare for CLAT exam may use the books mentioned below in their preparation.
Subject | CLAT 2026 Book Recommendation |
CLAT Logical Reasoning | - A Modern Approach to Logical Reasoning by R. S. Aggarwal - Verbal Reasoning by R. S. Aggarwal - Analytical Reasoning (English) by M. K. Pandey - A New Approach to Verbal and Analytical Reasoning by Arihant |
CLAT Legal Reasoning | - Legal Awareness and Legal Reasoning by Pearson - Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning by A. P. Bhardwaj - Objective Legal Aptitude by R. S. Aggarwal |
CLAT Quantitative Techniques | - Fast Track Objective Arithmetic by Arihant Publications - 30 Days Wonder for Maths by S. Chand - Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Pearson’s - Quantitative Aptitude by R. S. Aggarwal |
CLAT GK & Current Affairs | - General Knowledge 2025, 2024, and 2023 by Arihant Publications - Current Affairs Yearly by Arihant Publications - Manorama Year Book by Manorama Publications - General Knowledge 2025 to 2026 by Lucent’s - General Knowledge 2025–2026 by Tarun Goyal |
CLAT English | - Objective General English 2025 by S. P. Bakshi - Objective General English 2025 by R. S. Aggarwal - The Pearson Guide to the CLAT by Pearson’s - Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis - CLAT Guide by Tata McGraw-Hill |
Note: Without wasting any time, students must start with their CLAT 2026 preparation process as this will help them save some time for final CLAT revision and students can then focus on relaxing their mind before the examination.
Recommended: CLAT Sample Papers 2026: Free PDFs & Preparation Guide
