Strategy
AILET — How to prepare
Sitting both AILET and CLAT is the norm and the sensible course, since the dates differ and the preparation overlaps heavily. The addition AILET requires is depth of general knowledge — both current affairs retained over months and a body of static knowledge that CLAT’s passage-based format does not demand in the same way.
A combined plan
- From day one — a newspaper daily, read properly. Serving English, current affairs and reading speed for both examinations.
- From day one — demanding long-form reading. AILET English passages reward it particularly.
- From month two — static general knowledge, systematically. History, polity, geography, institutions, awards. The AILET-specific addition.
- Months two to four — logical reasoning across both styles. Argument analysis for both papers, analytical reasoning for AILET.
- Months three to five — legal reasoning technique for CLAT. Which also helps with careful reading generally.
- From month four — mocks in both formats. At least some AILET-specific, to expose the general knowledge gaps.
- Apply to both separately. Different applications, different dates, different processes.
What AILET candidates miss
- Static general knowledge — the clearest difference from a CLAT-only preparation.
- Practising only CLAT-format mocks — which cushion the gaps AILET exposes.
- Assuming the structure is unchanged — AILET has revised its sections more than once.
- Missing the separate application — NLU Delhi is outside the CLAT consortium entirely.
- The shared base — most of the work
- Daily reading, comprehension practice, critical reasoning and the current affairs habit. Prepared once, it serves both examinations and accounts for the large majority of each.
- Static general knowledge — the AILET addition
- Polity, modern history, international organisations, awards and culture, built as a revision sheet from past papers and revised weekly. Twenty minutes a day, cumulative, and the clearest differentiator.
- Analytical reasoning — the second addition
- Arrangements and puzzles alongside the argument analysis a CLAT preparation builds. Finite, mechanical and quick to acquire with regular practice.
- Two applications, two calendars
- Separate forms, fees and deadlines. An administrative matter that has cost prepared candidates an attempt.
Because NLU Delhi sits outside the consortium, a candidate has to track two admission processes rather than one — two application windows, two examination dates and two counselling procedures. None of that is difficult, and all of it is easy to overlook when the preparation itself is shared. Putting both calendars in one place at the start of the year is a small step that removes an entirely avoidable failure.
Start static general knowledge in month two, not month six
It is cumulative, it responds to short daily revision rather than to intensive study, and it is the component most likely to be deferred because the reading habit feels like it should cover it. It does not — a newspaper builds current affairs, not the static pool AILET draws on, and those are different bodies of material.
