The Common Law Admission Test is more of a marathon than a race. It is the key to the most premier institutions for pursuing legal education in India. The syllabus is extremely extensive, with fierce competition among candidates. The aspirants need to be skilled and determined, with effective time management skills, to reach their ultimate goal. This blog aims to bring out the time management skills required to ace the examination, along with a planner and sample templates. Consider this blog as a guide to conquering the clock and increasing your chances of getting into a National Law University.
Importance of Time-Management Skills
Before moving towards the planner and templates for the aspirants, it is crucial to understand the importance of time management for the CLAT aspirants. This is a non-negotiable skill when attempting such a competitive examination. Discussed below are the importance of time management skills:
- Tackling the vast syllabus: The CLAT examination holds a vast syllabus comprising five long subjects, English Language, Current Affairs, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude. With all these subjects, it’s easy to lose track of time, therefore it’s essential to learn time management skills.
- Comprehensive preparation: Candidates must simplify their study plans and allocate sufficient time to each subject. Time Management skills help you focus on such areas and ensure a balanced preparation.
- Facilitates regular revision: Revision is extremely important when preparing for five extensive sections like the one in the CLAT syllabus. Better time management skills will provide you with more time for revision on your weak areas.
- Mock tests and analysis practice: Appearing for mock tests is one of the foundational steps in clearing the CLAT Examination. Time management skills allow you to schedule your tests strategically and also dedicate enough time to your analysis of the mock tests.
- Boosts confidence and reduces stress: Approaching and completing the CLAT examination with your time management skills ultimately makes you feel good and boosts your confidence. This reduces your stress and ultimately helps you perform better in the actual examination.
- Optimises the aspirant’s performance: Time management skills will help you identify your most productive hours and help you maximise your efficiency and learning in those hours.
Tips to Ace Your Time-Management Plan
Given below are some tips to help you stick to your schedule and time management plan that will ace your examinations. Follow the tips below to prepare effectively:
- Don’t pack your schedule with too many unrealistic goals at the same time. Start preparing slowly and slowly increase the number of hours of preparation in your schedule.
- Identify the distractions in your schedule and slowly start moving away from those distractions. You can take small breaks in your study sessions, but avoid getting distracted for long.
- Regularly track your progress and keep updating your planner according to your preparation. This will help you stay motivated and update the areas where you need adjustment.
- Be kind enough to reward yourself. Acknowledge your small achievements and reward yourself for sticking to your preparation. Every day in your preparation counts. This will help you keep yourself motivated until the examination.
- Take enough breaks to avoid tiring yourself. There will be days when you won’t feel like studying. Take regular rest days to feel relaxed and unburdened.
- Keep yourself surrounded with good mentors and peers. This will provide you with better guidance and support on time management skills, and you’ll get to learn how they aced their examinations.
Weekly Study Plan Structure
Provided below is a weekly study plan structure that includes how much you should dedicate to each subject/section from the CLAT examination in a week. Given below is a template that will help you structure one of your own:
| Day | Subjects | Study Sessions |
| Monday | Logical Reasoning and Comprehensive Legal Passages | 3-4 Hours |
| Tuesday | Current Affairs and Quants Practice session | 3-4 Hours |
| Wednesday | Legal Reasoning and English Grammar Practice | 3-4 Hours |
| Thursday | General Knowledge revision with a study session and Maths application | 3-4 Hours |
| Friday | Mock tests with analysis, Vocabulary training, and reading comprehension practice | 4-5 Hours |
| Saturday | Appear for a full-length mock and go for an In-depth analysis of your mock test | 4-5 Hours |
| Sunday | Weekly Recap of all the weak areas and Doubt Solving Sessions | 2-3 Hours |
FAQs
This totally depends on the learning pace of the aspirants. However candidates generally allocate 8-10 hours of daily preparation for their towards their CLAT Examination.
Candidates can go with any of the approaches. Studying all the subjects daily will help you be consistent with your preparation. While preparing each subject a day will help you allocate a broader time slot for each subject, allowing you for maximum revision time.
Candidates should slowly increase their frequency of mock tests as the examination approaches. In the last few months of your preparation you should take a mock test every alternate day.