Common Law Admission Test

Common Law Admission Test
Consortium of NLUs
AcronymCLAT
TypePen-and-paper-based
AdministratorConsortium of NLUs, Bar Council of India
Skills testedLegal Reasoning, Logical reasoning, English Comprehension, General knowledge Current Affairs, Quantitative Techniques
PurposeEntrance to National Law Universities, Self-financed law colleges, PSUs & Indian Army (JAG OFFICERS)
Year started2008 (2008)
Duration2 Hours
Score range-30 to 120
Score validity1 year
OfferedYearly
Restrictions on attemptsNone
RegionsIndia
LanguagesEnglish
Annual number of test takersMore than 1,00,000
PrerequisitesSenior Secondary Exam, High School in any stream (for UG courses)
Graduation in law ( for PG courses)
Fee4,000 INR
Used by(National Law Universities) & other Private Law Colleges, PSUs, Indian Army.
Qualification rateApp. 3%
Websiteconsortiumofnlus.ac.in

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralized national-level entrance test for admissions to the 25 out of 27 National Law Universities (NLU) except NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya. CLAT was first introduced in 2008 as a centralized entrance examination for admission to the National Law Schools/Universities in India.[1]

NLU Delhi and NLU Meghalaya administer their own entrance exams, the All India Law Entrance Test (AILET) and the NLU Meg Undergraduate Admission Test (MEG UAT), respectively. Both AILET & MEG UAT are anticipated to be merged into CLAT in the coming years.[2] A few private and self-financed law schools in India also use these scores for law admissions. Public sector undertakings in India like ONGC, Coal India, BHEL, the Steel Authority of India, Oil India, the Indian Army (for the recruitment of Judge Advocate General officers) use CLAT Post Graduation (CLAT PG) scores.

The test is taken after the Higher Secondary Examination or the 12th grade for admission to integrated undergraduate degrees in Law (BA/BBA/B.COM/B.SC/BSW LLB) and after graduation in an undergraduate law program for Master of Laws (LL.M) programs. It is considered one of the TOP 10 toughest entrance examinations in India with the acceptance rate being as low as 3 percent.[3]

  1. ^ "Brief History". Consortium of NLUs. Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  2. ^ "CLAT 2022". consortiumofnlus.ac.in. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. ^ "Why are student suicides on the rise? Ask any teen applying for CLAT, JEE, NEET, you'll know". 22 September 2021. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.