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CLAT 2027 Exam Date, Registration, Exam Pattern, Syllabus, Fee, Eligibility and Free CLAT Mock Tests

CLAT is the entrance test for the national law universities and is accepted by a wide range of other law schools. Its undergraduate paper covers five areas — English, current affairs including general knowledge, legal reasoning, logical reasoning and quantitative techniques — and every one of them is built on passages.

That is the central fact about the modern CLAT. It does not ask you to recall legal principles; it gives you a passage containing them and asks you to apply them. A candidate who prepares by memorising law is preparing for an examination that no longer exists.

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CLAT · checked 19 September 2026

CLAT at a glance, from the official notices

The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.

Free CLAT mock testCLAT syllabusToday’s current affairs
31Oct 2026

Next deadline

CLAT: the facts that matter now

  1. 01

    Press release 22 July 2026; applications open 3 August and close 31 October 2026, 11:59 p.m.; examination Sunday 6 December 2026, 2 to 4 p.m. (to…

    2027 cycle

  2. 02

    Held 7 December 2025; result 16 December 2025; about 92,000 registered and 88,657 appeared (96 per cent); top UG score 112.75, top PG score 104.25

    CLAT 2026

  3. 03

    The Consortium of National Law Universities, once a year, pen-and-paper (OMR), for the five-year integrated LL.B. and one-year LL.M. programmes at…

    Conducted by

  4. 04

    120 multiple-choice questions in 2 hours, one mark each, −0.25 per wrong answer, in five comprehension-based sections: English Language, Current…

    Pattern (UG)

Notification

CLAT notification and key dates

Checked 15 September 2026 on consortiumofnlus.ac.in. The Consortium’s press release of 22 July 2026 fixed CLAT 2027 for Sunday 6 December 2026 from 2 to 4 p.m., with the online application portal open from 3 August to 31 October 2026. The UG and PG eligibility, syllabus guides and instruction pages for 2027 are up; the admit-card date and the counselling schedule are to be notified.

CLAT 2027 — the cycle.
EventDate
Press release22 July 2026 (decisions of 18 July)
Applications open3 August 2026
Applications close31 October 2026, 11:59 p.m. — form complete and fee paid
Admit cardsTo be intimated on the website
ExaminationSunday 6 December 2026, 2 – 4 p.m.; 2 – 4:40 p.m. for PwD candidates
Answer key, result, counsellingTo be notified; the 2026 result came nine days after the test
CLAT 2026 — the reference cycle.
ItemDetail
Examination7 December 2025
Result16 December 2025
Registered / appearedAbout 92,000 / 88,657 (96 per cent attendance; 57 per cent women)
Top scoresUG 112.75 out of 120; PG 104.25

What has changed and what has not

The 2027 pattern is the comprehension-based format introduced in 2020 with 120 questions (reduced from 150 in 2024) in two hours; the PG paper has no descriptive section. The examination stays offline on OMR. Foreign nationals cannot sit CLAT and approach the NLUs directly; NRI and NRI-sponsored seats are also handled by the NLUs themselves, not by the Consortium’s counselling.

Overview

What CLAT is, and who it suits

CLAT is used for admission to the five-year integrated law programmes at the national law universities, and its postgraduate paper for LLM admission. It is conducted by the consortium of those universities, and admission follows from rank through a centralised counselling process.

The paper is entirely passage-based. Each section presents extracts — from journalism, legal writing, historical material or data — followed by questions that require reading and inference rather than recall. The quantitative section works the same way, presenting data in a passage and asking questions about it, rather than posing standalone problems.

The five sections

  • English Language — passages with questions on comprehension, inference, vocabulary in context and the author’s argument.
  • Current Affairs including General Knowledge — passages on recent developments, with questions extending beyond the passage into related knowledge.
  • Legal Reasoning — passages setting out legal principles or situations, with questions applying them. No prior legal knowledge is required.
  • Logical Reasoning — short argumentative passages with questions on assumptions, inferences, conclusions and argument structure.
  • Quantitative Techniques — data presented in passages or graphical form, with questions requiring basic mathematics up to class 10.

The legal reasoning section supplies whatever principles a question needs. What it does not supply is time: the paper is long, dense and read under pressure. The candidates who struggle are almost never those who lack legal knowledge; they are those who cannot read fast enough to reach the end.

Eligibility

Who can apply for CLAT

CLAT eligibility, from the UG and PG eligibility pages for CLAT 2027 on consortiumofnlus.ac.in. Eligibility is verified at admission; a candidate who cannot produce the qualifying result loses the seat.

Who may apply.
ProgrammeRequirement
UG — five-year integrated LL.B.Class 12 or equivalent with at least 45 per cent marks or equivalent grade; 40 per cent for SC, ST and PwD candidates; candidates appearing in March–April 2027 may apply and must produce the pass at admission
PG — one-year LL.M.An LL.B. or equivalent with at least 50 per cent marks or equivalent grade; 45 per cent for SC, ST and PwD; candidates appearing in 2027 may apply on the same condition
AgeNo upper age limit for either programme
NationalityIndian nationals, NRIs and PIO and OCI card holders; foreign nationals are not eligible for CLAT and apply to the NLUs directly

Also from the instructions

  • Programme, category and BPL — cannot be changed once the application is submitted and paid.
  • Reservation — each NLU applies its own state and central reservation rules; the e-brochure carries the intake and fee structure of all 26 NLUs.
  • Documents — uploaded as PDFs; photograph and signature need not be attested; a mismatch at admission cancels the provisional admission.

Selection process

How CLAT selection works

Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.

Stages change between cycles. Confirm the structure in the notification for the cycle you are sitting.
StageFormatWhat it involves
CLAT — the written testPen and paper (OMR), 2 hours, 120 questions, one afternoon sessionUG: five sections of passage-based questions testing comprehension and reasoning rather than prior knowledge. PG: passage-based questions on primary legal materials. One mark per correct answer and 0.25 deducted per wrong one in both.
Answer key, objections and resultProvisional key with an objection window, then the final key and scorecardIn the 2026 cycle the provisional key came within days of the 7 December test and the result on 16 December 2025. The scorecard carries the marks, the category ranks and the All India Rank used for counselling.
Counselling and admissionCentralised online counselling by the Consortium in roundsCandidates register for counselling with a fee, fill NLU preferences, and receive provisional allotments in rounds with freeze, float and upgrade options; the NLUs verify documents and the class-12 or LL.B. result at admission. Affiliate universities run their own admissions on the CLAT score.

Application to counselling

How CLAT runs, from the August registration to the December test, the scorecard and NLU counselling

The steps follow the CLAT 2027 instructions and the way the 2026 cycle ran.

The CLAT process

  1. Register on consortiumofnlus.ac.in Register with a personal mobile number and e-mail; an OTP validates the number and a password is set. Fill the form with the names exactly as on the certificates, the programme (UG or PG), category, BPL status, test-city preferences and NLU preferences, and upload the documents as PDFs.
  2. Pay the fee ₹4,000 (General, OBC) or ₹3,500 (SC, ST, BPL, PwD) online, plus bank charges; ₹500 more for the previous years’ question papers. The form must be complete and paid by 11:59 p.m. on 31 October 2026; it is non-refundable.
  3. Admit card Downloaded from the candidate login on the date announced; the test-day instructions on the portal list the permitted items and the reporting time.
  4. Test day A single afternoon session on 6 December 2026, 2 to 4 p.m., on an OMR sheet; PwD candidates get 40 extra minutes.
  5. Answer key and result A provisional key with an objection window, then the final key and the scorecard with the All India and category ranks — nine days after the test in 2026.
  6. Counselling Registration for the Consortium’s centralised counselling with the counselling fee, preference filling, and allotment rounds with freeze, float and upgrade; document verification and the qualifying result at the allotted NLU; affiliates run their own admissions on the score.

Exam pattern

CLAT exam pattern and marking

The CLAT exam pattern below is the UG and PG syllabus guide for CLAT 2027 on consortiumofnlus.ac.in: two hours, 120 questions, one mark each, 0.25 deducted per wrong answer, and every question drawn from a passage. The section-wise question ranges are the approximate weights the Consortium has published in its guides.

CLAT UG paper. 2 hours, 120 questions, OMR.
SectionApproximate questionsWhat the passages test
English Language22 – 26Passages of about 450 words from fiction and non-fiction at class-12 reading level: main point, inferences, summary, comparison of viewpoints, vocabulary in context
Current Affairs including General Knowledge28 – 32Passages from news and journalistic writing: contemporary events, arts and culture, international affairs, historical events of continuing significance
Legal Reasoning28 – 32Passages on legal matters and policy: identify the rule, apply it to fact situations, see how a change in the rule changes the outcome — no prior legal knowledge required
Logical Reasoning22 – 26Short passages: arguments, premises and conclusions, inferences, analogies, contradictions
Quantitative Techniques10 – 14Short sets of facts, graphs or numerical data: class-10 arithmetic, ratios, percentages, basic algebra and mensuration
Total120+1 / −0.25; tie-break on Legal Reasoning, then age
CLAT PG paper. 2 hours, 120 objective questions.
ItemDetail
SourceExtracts from judgments, statutes and regulations across Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, Administrative Law, Contract, Torts, Family Law, Criminal Law, Property Law, Company Law, Public International Law, Tax, Environmental Law and Labour and Industrial Law
SkillsReading and comprehending the issues and arguments in the passage, awareness of the related law, summarising, and applying the law of the field
Marking+1 per correct answer; −0.25 per wrong answer; no descriptive section

A reading test with a −0.25

Every UG question hangs on a passage, so the paper is 120 questions across roughly 30 passages in 120 minutes — a passage and four questions every four minutes. The 2026 top score of 112.75 shows what full-speed reading with few errors yields; the quarter-mark deduction punishes guessing on the questions the passage does not settle.

Study plan

How to prepare for CLAT

CLAT is a two-hour reading and reasoning test with a quarter-mark deduction, held once a year on the first Sunday of December. The preparation is daily reading at speed, current affairs from about a year before the test, and passage-based practice in the five sections; the 31 October application deadline falls in the middle of it.

Twelve-week plan for CLAT 2027 (6 December 2026).
WeeksWorkOutput
1–4Two passages a day from editorials and long-form journalism, timed at four minutes each with questions; current affairs from the year in a running notebook; legal reasoning principle-and-fact setsReading speed at 450 words in under three minutes
5–8Sectional tests in each of the five areas; logical reasoning argument sets; quantitative sets on dataAccuracy above 85 per cent per section
9–11Full two-hour mocks twice a week on OMR with −0.25, in the 2–4 p.m. slot; the CLAT 2026 and 2025 papersAttempt count fixed; Legal Reasoning score maximised for the tie-break
12Current affairs revision; one mock; admit card and centreReady for 6 December

What top-100 candidates do

  • They read the passage once, properly — and answer from it; re-reading is where the minutes go.
  • They give Legal Reasoning its due — the largest section and the first tie-breaker.
  • They keep current affairs to a year — the passages come from recent news and the questions from the passage.
  • They skip cleanly — a −0.25 turns a coin-flip guess into a loss; leave the question the passage does not answer.

Practice on this site

CLAT syllabus CLAT previous year papers CLAT mock tests CLAT study material AILET guide

Sources

Official notifications and sources

Checked 15 September 2026 against the CLAT 2027 press release, eligibility, syllabus and instruction pages on consortiumofnlus.ac.in.

Official documents

CLAT 2027 — Consortium of NLUs Press release: CLAT 2027 date and application window, 22 July 2026 (PDF) CLAT 2027 UG eligibility CLAT 2027 UG syllabus and guide CLAT 2027 UG instructions — dates, fee, tie-break, counselling CLAT 2027 PG eligibility CLAT 2027 PG syllabus and guide Consortium of National Law Universities

Exam resources

Everything for CLAT

Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.

CLAT SyllabusCLAT syllabus — the five comprehension-based sections and what each actually tests.CLAT Exam PatternCLAT exam pattern 2027 — 120 passage-based questions in 2 hours, +1 / −0.25, the five UG sections and weights, the PG paper, tie-break and 2026 top scores.CLAT Previous PapersCLAT previous year papers — practising the comprehension format and building reading speed under time.CLAT Mock TestsCLAT mock tests — full two-hour comprehension practice with analysis of reading speed and section coverage.CLAT PreparationCLAT preparation strategy — building reading speed, following current affairs and practising legal reasoning discipline.CLAT Study MaterialCLAT study material — legal reasoning, English, current affairs and quantitative notes for a comprehension-based paper.

Related

More Other Law Entrances preparation

All Other Law Entrances examsEvery exam in this categoryPrevious-year papersPast papers with solutionsCurrent affairsDaily, weekly and monthlyExam updatesNotifications and results

Questions

CLAT — FAQs

When is CLAT 2027?

Sunday 6 December 2026 from 2 to 4 p.m. (to 4:40 p.m. for PwD candidates), by the Consortium’s press release of 22 July 2026. Applications are open on consortiumofnlus.ac.in from 3 August to 11:59 p.m. on 31 October 2026; the admit-card and result dates will be posted on the portal.

What is the CLAT exam pattern?

Two hours, 120 multiple-choice questions, one mark each and 0.25 deducted per wrong answer, on an OMR sheet. The UG paper has five passage-based sections — English Language, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques; the PG paper draws its 120 questions from extracts of judgments and statutes across the LL.B. subjects, with no descriptive section.

Who is eligible for CLAT 2027?

For the UG programme, class 12 with at least 45 per cent (40 for SC, ST and PwD) or appearing in March–April 2027; for the PG programme, an LL.B. with at least 50 per cent (45 for SC, ST and PwD) or final year. There is no upper age limit. Indian nationals, NRIs and OCI/PIO card holders may apply; foreign nationals apply to the NLUs directly.

What is the CLAT fee?

₹4,000 for General and OBC candidates and ₹3,500 for SC, ST, BPL and PwD candidates, paid online with bank charges extra; the previous years’ question papers cost ₹500 more. The fee is non-refundable and the programme, category and BPL fields cannot be changed after payment.

What was the CLAT 2026 result?

The Consortium declared it on 16 December 2025, nine days after the 7 December test: about 92,000 candidates had registered and 88,657 appeared, 96 per cent attendance with 57 per cent women. The top UG score was 112.75 out of 120 and the top PG score 104.25.

Is there negative marking in CLAT?

Yes — 0.25 of a mark is deducted for every wrong answer against one mark for a correct one, in both the UG and PG papers, so a guess at one in four loses on average. Ties are broken on the Legal Reasoning score, then age.

Do I need to know law for CLAT UG?

No. The Consortium’s guide says the Legal Reasoning passages require no prior knowledge of law: each passage states a rule or principle, and the questions ask you to apply it to fact situations and to see how a change in the rule changes the outcome. General awareness of legal and policy issues helps with the current-affairs passages.

Are there free CLAT mock tests?

Yes. The free CLAT mock tests here follow the 2027 pattern — 120 passage-based questions across the five UG sections in two hours with the −0.25 deduction — and report section-wise scores against the 2026 top scores. Take them on paper in the 2–4 p.m. slot; the real test is OMR.

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