When I started teaching CLAT aspirants, I thought my primary job was to teach them the subjects and help them solve questions.
Over the years, I realised that teaching is only one part of the job.
A student preparing for CLAT is dealing with much more than five sections of an examination.
There are questions about strategy, time, consistency, reading, mocks, mistakes, confidence, pressure, expectations, and sometimes even confusion about whether they are preparing in the right direction.
After more than 13 years of teaching and mentoring CLAT aspirants, and having worked with thousands of students, I have learnt many things that no syllabus can teach you.
Some of them have changed the way I teach.
Some have changed the way I mentor.
And some have completely changed the way I look at CLAT preparation.
Here are a few things my journey has taught me.
𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐓 𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦
One of the biggest lessons I have learnt is that students often look at CLAT as a collection of five subjects.
But when you actually sit with students and analyse their preparation, you realise that the examination tests something much broader.
It tests how well a student can read.
How quickly they can understand.
How they deal with unfamiliar information.
How they apply what they have understood.
How they manage time.
How they identify what they should attempt and what they should leave.
And most importantly, how calmly they can make decisions under pressure.
That is why I have always believed that 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐓 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦.
The examination has evolved over the years, and students have to evolve with it. The official CLAT 2027 instructions, for example, continue to require candidates to prepare for an examination built around multiple components rather than a single subject-based test. (Consortium of NLUs)
𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲
This is probably one of the most important things mentoring has taught me.
There is no single CLAT strategy that will work equally well for every student.
I have seen students who read extremely well but struggle with speed.
I have seen students who are very good at solving questions but make avoidable mistakes.
I have seen students with excellent mock scores who lack consistency.
And I have also seen students who initially look average but improve tremendously once they start preparing in the right way.
So when a student asks me,
“Sir, what should I do?”
my first question is often:
“What are you doing right now?”
Because before suggesting a strategy, I need to understand the student.
This is another area where my thinking has become much clearer over the years.
Many students believe Current Affairs preparation means completing a monthly PDF.
They read hundreds of facts.
They underline names and dates.
They memorise awards, appointments, and events.
Then they move to the next month's compilation.
But CLAT Current Affairs requires a different approach.
If there is an important international event, you should not only know what happened.
You should understand why it happened, what led to it, who the important stakeholders are, what the background is, and what its broader implications may be.
Because a passage can test your understanding of the issue rather than simply ask you to recall a fact.
That is when mentoring starts creating real value.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭
I have seen CLAT change over the years.
Patterns change.
Question styles change.
The emphasis on different skills can change.
Students preparing today are not necessarily preparing for exactly the same examination that students faced years ago.
The recent official CLAT 2026 process itself included formal review of questions and answer keys, while the Consortium's CLAT 2027 materials provide the current examination information for the next cycle. (Consortium of NLUs)
This is why I don't believe in preparing students only for a particular pattern.
Patterns can change.
But the ability to read, understand, reason, apply and make decisions remains valuable.
That, perhaps more than anything else, is what 13+ years of mentoring CLAT aspirants has taught me.
𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐣 𝐊𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐫
Neeraj Kumar is a CLAT Mentor, Legal Reasoning Expert, Author, and Educator with 13+ years of experience in law-entrance education. A CNLU graduate, he has worked with thousands of CLAT aspirants and has built his teaching approach around simplifying complex concepts, developing reading and reasoning skills, and helping students prepare with clarity and consistency.
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