<p>The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for undergraduate and postgraduate courses saw 93% attendance all over India and 87% in Bengaluru with candidates opining that the exam was tougher than last year’s.<br /><br />Professor S P Singh, Registrar of Chanakya National Law University, the nodal institution for this year’s test, said that the exam was “moderate” and the 200-marks paper had no errors. “It had a fair amount of difficulty to test the students’ skills. In fact, we expect the cutoff to go up from last year’s 65%,” he said.<br /><br />About 7,000 more students attended the test compared to last year. Out of the 1,533 who applied from Karnataka, 1,333 attempted the exam, said Singh, who is also the convener of the test implementation committee.<br /><br />Of the 50,676 students who had applied, 47,108 were present to grab a seat in one of the 18 institutions participating in the exam. Uttar Pradesh topped the list of applicants with 11,449 followed by Delhi (3,194), Bihar (2,431) and Kerala (1,644). “We saw a good response from J&K with the participation of 47 of the 52 candidates who applied for the exam. We expect the number of students to go up, next year,” Singh said.<br /><br />Of the 1,533 candidates who applied for the exam in Karnataka, 1,259 candidates appeared for the exam in five centres in Bengaluru and 74 at Mysuru.<br /><br /><br />Students find this year’s paper tough<br /><br />Being one of India’s most popular law entrance exam, students found this year’s CLAT paper, a tough nut to crack. At SJM Infotech Pvt Ltd, 400 students who had appeared for the test were huddled in groups, each complaining about the part of the paper that they found difficult and worried about negative marking. There were noticeably fewer girls.<br /><br />Saaramsh M S and Ritu M Eshwar, the commerce students who attempted the exam for the second time, said the mathematics section, with 20 marks, was the most difficult. “The exam was tougher than last year’s and we found that time management was the key especially because the questions from logical reasoning section were lengthy,” they said.<br /><br />Karan Himatsingka said reading newspapers regularly helped him crack the general knowledge section easily, which saved a lot of time. “There were questions about Kulbhushan Yadav (the former Indian Navy officer on death row in Pakistan) and euthanasia. The really confusing part was legal aptitude and logical reasoning with lengthy questions which were confusing,” he said.<br /><br />While those who studied commerce and arts in their pre-university course struggled with mathematics, the candidates with science background found the section easiest.<br /><br />Pallavi Hemaraj, who has scored 80% in PCMB, said she will pursue law come what may. “I found mathematics easy. But I am here because I don’t want to study engineering or medical. But the legal aptitude section was toughest as I found it difficult to manage time,” she said. An invigilator at the centre, who didn’t want to reveal his identity, said the test was a mixed bag though most of the students who came out of the hall complained about legal aptitude section. <br /><br /><br />Key facts and dates<br /><br /></p>.<ul><li>Candidates applied: 50,676</li><li>Candidates appeared: 47,108</li><li>Date of answer key upload: May 15</li><li>Declaration of results: May 29</li><li>Publication of first seat allocation list: June 5</li></ul>
<p>The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) for undergraduate and postgraduate courses saw 93% attendance all over India and 87% in Bengaluru with candidates opining that the exam was tougher than last year’s.<br /><br />Professor S P Singh, Registrar of Chanakya National Law University, the nodal institution for this year’s test, said that the exam was “moderate” and the 200-marks paper had no errors. “It had a fair amount of difficulty to test the students’ skills. In fact, we expect the cutoff to go up from last year’s 65%,” he said.<br /><br />About 7,000 more students attended the test compared to last year. Out of the 1,533 who applied from Karnataka, 1,333 attempted the exam, said Singh, who is also the convener of the test implementation committee.<br /><br />Of the 50,676 students who had applied, 47,108 were present to grab a seat in one of the 18 institutions participating in the exam. Uttar Pradesh topped the list of applicants with 11,449 followed by Delhi (3,194), Bihar (2,431) and Kerala (1,644). “We saw a good response from J&K with the participation of 47 of the 52 candidates who applied for the exam. We expect the number of students to go up, next year,” Singh said.<br /><br />Of the 1,533 candidates who applied for the exam in Karnataka, 1,259 candidates appeared for the exam in five centres in Bengaluru and 74 at Mysuru.<br /><br /><br />Students find this year’s paper tough<br /><br />Being one of India’s most popular law entrance exam, students found this year’s CLAT paper, a tough nut to crack. At SJM Infotech Pvt Ltd, 400 students who had appeared for the test were huddled in groups, each complaining about the part of the paper that they found difficult and worried about negative marking. There were noticeably fewer girls.<br /><br />Saaramsh M S and Ritu M Eshwar, the commerce students who attempted the exam for the second time, said the mathematics section, with 20 marks, was the most difficult. “The exam was tougher than last year’s and we found that time management was the key especially because the questions from logical reasoning section were lengthy,” they said.<br /><br />Karan Himatsingka said reading newspapers regularly helped him crack the general knowledge section easily, which saved a lot of time. “There were questions about Kulbhushan Yadav (the former Indian Navy officer on death row in Pakistan) and euthanasia. The really confusing part was legal aptitude and logical reasoning with lengthy questions which were confusing,” he said.<br /><br />While those who studied commerce and arts in their pre-university course struggled with mathematics, the candidates with science background found the section easiest.<br /><br />Pallavi Hemaraj, who has scored 80% in PCMB, said she will pursue law come what may. “I found mathematics easy. But I am here because I don’t want to study engineering or medical. But the legal aptitude section was toughest as I found it difficult to manage time,” she said. An invigilator at the centre, who didn’t want to reveal his identity, said the test was a mixed bag though most of the students who came out of the hall complained about legal aptitude section. <br /><br /><br />Key facts and dates<br /><br /></p>.<ul><li>Candidates applied: 50,676</li><li>Candidates appeared: 47,108</li><li>Date of answer key upload: May 15</li><li>Declaration of results: May 29</li><li>Publication of first seat allocation list: June 5</li></ul>
