CLAT 2013: Balanced question paper; CLAT Guru Rajneesh Singh lauds HNLU

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2013 was held yesterday afternoon in 48 centres across 20 cities. Admission to 14 National Law Universities (NLUs) in the country is based on CLAT score. Around 29,500 students had enrolled for the exam this year..Every year, the CLAT is held on rotation basis by the participating Universities and this year, the CLAT was organized by Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU), Raipur. This year’s edition had introduced negative marking for the first time and also included static General Knowledge as part of the syllabus. Last year, the CLAT question paper had invited the wrath of students and academicians alike for allegedly failing to adhere to the syllabus..However, responses from students and academicians indicate that the planning and organisation of this year’s edition of CLAT was far better when compared to the previous years..CLAT Guru Rajneesh Singh had words of praise for CLAT 2013 and HNLU. Speaking to Bar & Bench, he said that “HNLU has cleared all apprehensions by exhibiting good organising skills”. He said that the management has been the best so far though some improvements are yet to be made..“Introduction of negative marking, better website, clear and timely communication, announcement of the entire calendar of activities and a good CLAT question paper were the plus points of this edition of CLAT”, he added..He also hailed the “great decision taken by CLAT 2013 to pardon many applicants” whose applications had initially been rejected. The CLAT Core Committee, after considering the requests made by such applicants and their parents had allowed them to appear for the exam provisionally. Singh said that “the careers of more than 1000 students would have been adversely affected for a trifle reason which fortunately did not happen”. He expressed hope that such gestures will continue till the last seat in the NLU is filled up..As regards the question paper, Singh had this to say: “CLAT 2013 is the best paper so far after CLAT 2008. Yes, there are some mistakes in a few questions. I would request the CLAT committee to consider this and if found true take a correct action on the same.”.He said that the English section of the paper was similar to the 2008 paper. “Students complained about Legal Aptitude (LA) being lengthy, but I think it is because students were used to having 5 – 15 Legal GK questions (like 2012 paper) in the mock tests. Those who had practised well would be able to score well in LA. Maths was not easy this time. Legal Reasoning questions were of average difficulty and typed ones. General Knowledge was well balanced and those who prepared well did not face any problem”, he said..Initial responses from students also indicated that the paper was easy and within the syllabus. Bar & Bench spoke to a few students who wrote the exam in Delhi. Hardik Vashisht had this to say: “The paper was good. I could only attempt about 150 questions though. The facilities provided could have been better.”.However, some of the students were of the opinion that the paper was a bit lengthy. One of the candidates Harsh Gautam said: “The paper was easy but it was quite lengthy. I missed about 30 questions. The logical reasoning and maths sections were easy. GK section was tough.”.Harshita Sinha was critical of the fact that students in her examination hall lost valuable time due to the invigilator’s negligence. “The question paper was fine and was within the syllabus. However, the exam, at least in my hall, was poorly organised. We lost about 20 minutes, thanks to the carelessness of the invigilator”, she said..A few other students also said that the paper was easy though they could not complete the paper due to lack of time..According to Rajneesh Singh “the best performers this year will be those:.1. who are at least average in English;.2. who had practiced Analytical Reasoning rigorously under time constraint (as it was time consuming);.3. who had practiced Legal Aptitude to the best extent and had exposure to variety of questions and have solved all previous years’ question papers;.4. who are good at Maths (though not essential);.5. who made a disciplined and long term effort in the preparation of GK; and.5. who could reject 20-30 questions correctly (out of 150 i.e. excluding GK).”.As per the CLAT website, the results will be declared on May 31, 2013.