The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is one of the most popular exams for a legal aspirant. The entrance exam marks the official entry of an aspirant into the legal world.
The Consortium of National Law Universities is the conducting body of this exam. It takes care of all the important exam details of the exam–from exam dates, center, structure to syllabus, eligibility, & more.
It is a significant event on the legal education calendar, attracting roughly 45,000 law students who aspire to pursue law after class XII.
Although CLAT is conducted for both UG and PG students, on this page, we’d only be focussing on UG-CLAT 2025.
The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a national-level entrance test for admission to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) law studies at India's 24 National Law Universities.
CLAT is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, which includes the representative universities. Several affiliated institutions and companies utilize the CLAT test for admissions and recruitment
All admissions to the 5-year integrated Ll.B. and LL.M. programs beginning in the Academic Year 2025-2026 shall be through the CLAT 2026.
Keep checking the table below to stay updated on the important exam dates.
Test Highlights |
Details |
Full Form |
CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) |
Test Conducting Body |
The Consortium of National Law Universities |
Test Level |
UG |
Test Frequency |
Once a year |
Test Mode |
Offline |
Test Duration |
120 Minutes |
Test Language |
English |
Test Purpose |
Admissions to BA LLB, BCom LLB, BSc LLB, BBA LLB, BSW LLB, LLM courses |
Based on the previous year's revised deadlines for the exam announced by the consortium, here are the important dates the candidate should keep a note of.
Event |
Timeline (Tentative) |
Release of CLAT admission notification |
May Beginning |
Start of CLAT online application form |
July Beginning |
CLAT 2026 last registration date |
The first week of November 2025 |
Release of CLAT 2026 admit card |
November-end 2025 |
CLAT 2026 Exam date |
First week of December 2025 |
Release of final answer key |
The first week of December 2025 |
Declaration of results |
The second week of December 2025 |
Commencement of counseling |
January 2026 |
Let’s take a look at the five sections that comprise CLAT. These sections test one's aptitude and reasoning abilities, and hence, require months of preparation and practice.
Every question carries 1 mark, and 0.25 marks will be deducted for every wrong answer.
Duration of the test |
120 minutes (2 hours) |
Mode |
Offline mode |
Type of Questions |
Multiple Type Questions (MCQs) |
Number of Questions |
120 |
Test Sections |
|
Marking scheme |
Total marks: 120 marks Objective questions will each carry 1 mark. 0.25 marks to be deducted for an incorrect answer. |
Language |
English |
Although the question distribution varies in the CLAT exam every year, the percentage of each section broadly remains the same. Below is a table that has the distribution of questions across sections in CLAT 2024:
Subject/Section |
Number of questions (weightage) |
CLAT 2024 (No. of Questions) |
English Language |
22-26 (20% of the paper) |
24 |
Quantitative Techniques |
10-14 (10% of the paper) |
12 |
Logical Reasoning |
22-26 (20% of the paper) |
24 |
Current Affairs, including General Knowledge |
28-32 (25 % of the paper) |
28 |
Legal Reasoning |
28-32 (25 % of the paper) |
32 |
Total Questions |
120 questions of one mark each |
|
Total Marks |
120 |
|
Total Time (min) |
120 |
|
Marks for correct answer |
1 marks |
|
Any applicant who has passed the 10+2 or an equivalent examination can apply for the CLAT exam. The minimum marks required for different categories are listed below:
Note: Candidates who will pass the Class 12th examination in March/ April 2025 are also eligible for the test.
Upon admission, these candidates must provide proof that they passed their Class 12th exam. Candidates who fail to fulfill this will be rejected and lose their right to admission.
CLAT doesn’t have an age limit. As long as you meet the eligibility criteria you can give the exam.
The CLAT exam application process will likely begin in July 2025.
Candidates seeking admission to undergraduate law courses offered by the participating NLUs can fill out the application form for the exam on the official Consortium website.
The steps to apply are as follows:
Note: Once an application has been submitted and paid for, the candidate will be unable to modify the program, category, or BPL field. Any change/alteration found in the name entered may disqualify the candidature.
Given below is a list of documents that a student will need while applying for the CLAT exam.
Documents |
Format |
Photograph |
jpeg/png |
Signature |
jpeg/png |
Category Certificate for SC/ST/OBC candidates |
|
Relevant Certificate for P.W.D. candidates |
|
Relevant Certificate for BPL candidates |
|
Application Fees
The application fee for the CLAT exam is included in the CLAT Official Notification-which is released in the month of July. As per the CLAT 2025 Notification, we have added the amounts in the table below.
Category |
Amount |
General/ OBC/PWD/NRI/PIO//OCI |
INR 4000 |
ST, SC, EWS |
INR 3500 |
The test is conducted in offline mode where the paper has 120 questions from five different sections. Below is a summary of the section-wise weightage of the 5 sections in the CLAT 2026 exam syllabus.
Subject/Section |
Number of questions (weightage) |
English Language |
22-26 (20% of the paper) |
Quantitative Techniques |
10-14 (10% of the paper) |
Logical Reasoning |
22-26 (20% of the paper) |
Current Affairs, including General Knowledge |
28-32 (25% of the paper) |
Legal Reasoning |
28-32 (25% of the paper) |
The full syllabus in detail and the CLAT 2026 Syllabus PDF can be found on our CLAT Syllabus page.
As per our specialists and mentors; we have broadly categorized the preparation strategy for CLAT 2026 below:
#1 Knowing the marking scheme inside out
You must understand the marking structure. You should know which section is your strongest in terms of conceptual clarity so you can score better to pass the exam.
#2 Understanding the exam and building strong conceptual skills
A good conceptual grasp is required for an exam as difficult as CLAT. Brush up on your fundamentals and review key ideas regularly to ensure you have a firm grasp of the concepts tested.
#3 Analyze and practice
Once the principles are clear, it is critical to write the practice exam on the same day to reinforce the notion. It will improve your conceptual knowledge and assist you in identifying your weak points.
As mentioned above, 50% of our toppers in both CLAT & AILET are from our 2-Year batch, i.e, they start their preparation for CLAT from Class 11.
So beginning early has tangible results in the race to NLUs!
There are multiple books available in the market for CLAT preparation. However, a serious CLAT aspirant should only invest his or her time in CLAT preparation books that have benefitted previous CLAT toppers.
The exam centers are situated in various cities across India. Candidates can select their exam center when completing the CLAT Application Form. Once assigned, the exam center cannot be altered. Candidates should carefully select their desired exam center and ensure that they can get there easily on the day of the exam.
While filling out the form, you will be able to select 3 Center locations of your preference.
Here is a list of cities where the Exam Centres are located.
Agartala |
Chennai |
Guwahati |
Jodhpur |
Muzzafarpur |
Shillong |
Agra |
Chittoor/Tirupathi |
Gwalior |
Kanpur |
Mysore |
Shimla |
Allahabad |
Coimbatore |
Haldwani |
Kolkata |
Nagpur |
Siliguri |
Amravati (Maharashtra) |
Cuttack |
Hissar |
Kota |
Navi Mumbai |
Sonepat |
Amritsar |
Dehradun |
Hooghly |
Kottayam |
New Delhi |
Srinagar |
Asansol |
Durg |
Hubli/Dharwad |
Kurnool |
Patiala |
Surat |
Aurangabad |
Ernakulum |
Hyderabad |
Kurukshetra |
Patna |
Thane |
Barrackpore |
Faridabad |
Imphal |
Lucknow |
Puducherry |
Thiruvananthapuram |
Bengaluru |
Gandhinagar |
Indore |
Madurai |
Pune |
Tirunelveli |
Bhopal |
Gangtok |
Jabalpur |
Malda |
Raipur |
Trichy |
Bhubaneshwar |
Ghaziabad |
Jaipur |
Mangalore |
Rajahmundry |
Vadodara |
Bilaspur |
Gorakhpur |
Jalandhar |
Meerut |
Rajkot |
Varanasi |
Calicut |
Greater Noida/Noida |
Jammu |
Mohali |
Ranchi |
Vijayawada |
Chandigarh |
Gurugram |
Jamshedpur |
Mumbai |
Salem |
Visakhapatnam |
The CLAT Admit Card will be released by the consortium of NLUs at least 15 days before the exam date, which is expected to be in the final week of November 2025. The admit card once out, can be downloaded from the official website - consortiumofnlus.ac.in
Possessing an admit card is mandatory for appearing in CLAT. The admit card contains information such as the candidate's roll number, the name and address of the exam center, exam times, and instructions.
Step 1: Go to the exam's official website, https://consortiumofnlus.ac.in
Step 2: Select CLAT exam 2026 and log in by providing your registered mobile number and password.
Step 3: Once logged in, on the top right of the screen, click the Download Admit Card link.
Step 4: Save the admission card PDF file to your device.
Step 5: Print at least two-to-three copies of the admission card on A4 paper for future reference.
The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) offers about 3400 seats for the 5-year LLB program. These seats are distributed based on reservations for several groups, including OBC, SC, ST, PWD, KM (Kashmiri Migrants), Armed Forces, and others.
During the CLAT 2024 seat allocation procedure, the reservation criteria established by each NLU are critical. Each university has its reservation policy, which differs depending on the institution. Candidates should check the individual NLU's website to know their reservations for different castes.
The CLAT exam cut-off is the minimum marks and rankings required for admittance to NLUs. After the counseling rounds, each NLU releases the cut-off in the form of opening and closing rankings. The table below shows the basic expected cut-off based on expert analysis of previous years.
Category |
Expected Cut-Off Marks (120 Total) |
General |
85-90 |
OBC and SC/ST |
70-80 |
It should be noted that the cut-off differs per college and across all student categories.
The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) will likely release CLAT results in December 2025 or January 2026. The results will be available on the consortium website. Candidates may get the CLAT result PDF by entering it into their registered account.
The scorecard includes the total marks received in the exam, the overall rank attained in CLAT, the category, and other information. Candidates will be invited to the counseling procedure based on their scores. Counseling is the final stage of admission to National Law Universities (NLUs).
Here are some of the important points and key takeaways to know for CLAT 2026.