CLAT 2024 Topper Interview: “It’s about time management & picking the right questions”- Rahul Palakurthy AIR 3

Rahul Palakurthy secured AIR 3 in CLAT 2024. A management graduate from IIM Calcutta, appearing for CLAT 2024 was part of his job. Rahul is a CLAT tutor at a private coaching institute in Bangalore. He appeared for the exam to test out the effects of the revised CLAT pattern and devise new strategies for the exam. Careers360 spoke to Rahul on his recent success and his experience as an educator. Here’s the interview.

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Hi Rahul, Congratulations on securing the third rank in CLAT 2024. What was the feeling when you first saw your rank?

I knew it’s going to be a pretty high rank. I had given CLAT before. I had an All India rank 15 last year. But that's not my objective (of appearing for the exam). My objective was to know how changes in test pattern affects us and what kind of attempts, time allocation and speed is required. These are the things that we teach and we would like to test out this part. We also have to prepare a provisional CLAT answer key after the exam. These are some of the reasons why I gave the exam. But yes, it’s a good feeling.

We know you are a teacher, but can you tell something more about your background?

I started off as a mechanical engineer, though I never worked as one. I did my management degree from IIM Calcutta in 1995-97. After that I worked briefly in the corporate sector for about five years. But I wanted to do something different. The standard corporate life wasn't something that I liked a lot.

So, I looked at education as an area of interest. Initially, I started by taking a franchise of a well known CAT coaching provider in Calcutta. It was reasonably successful. Later I started some education companies. One was called Vanguard Business School. However, this experiment didn’t turn out as well as we had expected.

Another company which I started was called Vistamind Education, which was acquired by Career Launcher. That’s how I came to Career Launcher. I take care of its operations at Bangalore and Mysore now.

What motivated you to appear for CLAT 2024?

There are a lot of factors. It was easier for students to accept me as a teacher for CAT, than for CLAT because I am an MBA myself. We wanted to make students understand that there are certain skill sets which are required for CLAT which may not be at all related to whether someone is a lawyer or not. That was one of the motivations.

Another motivation was that a good performance in the exam would add more weight to the strategy, tactics and mentorship I provide to my students, and hopefully, they would follow my advice better.

A third motivation was to keep in touch with the exam. The questions went down from 150 to 120. So, understanding what would be the right strategy and what would be the right cut off for the exam (was an objective).

What did you do differently this time than earlier attempts?

I did not do anything fundamentally different. There's a lot of experience I have with aptitude tests. What matters is adapting to the changes in the question paper.

For instance, the English section was extremely easy this year. So, scoring well in English is not the issue. The right strategy would be to score well in English at a rapid pace. You may have allocated 25 minutes to the section. But the moment you realise it’s an easy one, you up the pace and try to complete it in 15 and save 10 minutes which can become extremely useful.

GK had questions based on the given passage. Legal reasoning and quantitative techniques were also fairly easy. Logical reasoning was a bit tricky.

It was a high scoring-high attempt kind of a paper. With a higher number of attempts and good accuracy, one has a good chance. And thankfully that’s what I did this time.

How did you manage your time between teaching students as well as studying for yourself?

Honestly, I was not studying for myself. I make content and evaluate it in order to prepare for a class. I had to strategize on what is the best way to teach a particular concept in class. That was the only learning for me. I did not take any mocks but only went through the mocks to clear doubts for my students.

I read a lot so I stay well informed. This time GK was also easy. Had it been a bit tougher then perhaps I would not have got this rank.

Which section of the CLAT exam do you find most challenging for students?

This year, logical reasoning was the most difficult section because the questions were tricky where more than one choice appeared to be the correct answer. The toughest section in CLAT varies from year to year. Last year maths was the most challenging section. English and GK sections were also tricky. This year the sections were easy except logical reasoning.

What is your take on the revised CLAT exam pattern? Has it indeed made the exam more student friendly and less lengthy as the Consortium had said when it revised the exam pattern?

I personally do not believe that length of a paper should really be a concern. In most aptitude tests, students are not able to finish the tests. Attempting all the questions is not the objective either. It’s about time management where you pick the right questions to attempt and leave out the difficult ones.

I am not sure that making the paper easy was necessary. Even if that was the objective, it has not been done well. For instance, the English was too easy this time. It doesn’t test anything. In that sense, you lose sight of what you are testing. It’s also worrying that in such a high scoring paper, even half a mark becomes too critical which can cause a difference of 50 ranks. I would rather prefer, and so would most students who have prepared seriously, to have a slightly tougher paper.

For the legal aptitude section, the consortium says that prior knowledge of law is not required to answer questions. What is your opinion on that since we see questions on torts, contracts, marriage acts etc?

The consortium’s view is correct. Prior knowledge of law is not required. This is because the law and the legal principles involved are already given in the passage. The concepts that are going to be tested are already there. The questions test the ability to understand the given concept and apply it to a particular scenario.

But does it help to have legal knowledge? Yes. One is about the way of thinking about legal principles, another one is about being familiar with legal terminologies. Having legal knowledge makes one better on these two counts. It also improves speed.

The maths section carries roughly 10% weight. How difficult this section is in general for law aspirants.

Maths is only 10% of the paper, but it becomes a very important one in easy paper such as the one we had this year where even half a mark can make a big difference. The quants section requires you to be comfortable with numbers. It’s not higher order maths but basic arithmetic of class 8th or 9th level.

CLAT is stream neutral which is a point that needs to be highlighted. There’s a normal perception that only humanities students take up law, which is not correct. Students from any stream can appear for CLAT. The fact that humanities students have got top ranks in CLAT shows, maths is not tough, for non-maths students. So, don’t fear Math. Get comfortable with numbers and practise.

On general knowledge and current affairs, one of the CLAT toppers said this section can be handled by reading the given paragraphs only. What is your take on this or should students mug-up facts as they do for objective papers ?

Everything has to be seen in context. We are talking of CLAT 2024. The questions coming from memory were very less this time. Lot of answers were there in the passage or could be inferred from the passage. But this was not the case last year. So, we cannot extrapolate.

The GK section would not test very obscure facts or trivial events. The section mostly focuses on significant events in the last one or two years. But, students must go deeper into the history of these significant events. Questions can be asked from old facts which are still relevant today or connected to any current event. So, one must not assume that everything can be inferred from the passage itself. It would be a risky thing to do.

Any daily study time table you would prescribe for CLAT? What is the ideal time frame to prepare for CLAT?

There is no one answer that fits everyone. If a student at the beginning of 11th itself is clear that he wants to go for law, then why wait for second year. Ideally one should start early.

If a student is not good in a particular section and better in another one, then we adjust the time and increase the time for the weaker section. So, a lot of the preparation is in fact fine tuning.

It's like you want to prepare a player. If you have a basic player, then you teach the basic skill. If you have an advanced player already with you, then your job is really to optimise the performance, look at small mistakes that they're making and provide corrective action and so on.

One of your students Pradyoth Shah has secured the All India second rank in CLAT 2024. How was your rapport with him? Can you shed some light on the relationship you shared with him?

Let me start by saying that because of rank two and rank three coming, it developed as a story. But let me not in any way forget that there is a broader set of teachers who were involved in teaching and mentoring all students including Pradyot. There are probably teachers who contributed more than I did, so they should be recognized.

Talking about Pradyot, three things stand out - one is his clarity about his goals. Second was his supportive parents who were not from law background themselves but supported their son’s career choice from the start. And the third thing - is his humility and humbleness.

In my assessment, what probably worked for him is that he has the ability to stay calm under pressure. These are skills, not just for one exam. For life, this kind of attitude will really do good. So,expect great things from him.

Finally, what are your suggestions for upcoming CLAT aspirants?

The first thing I would say is, please don't underestimate the exam. It’s worrying for me because there's a lot of talk that it was a very easy exam. An easy exam doesn't mean that everybody got through. There are only limited seats.

Second, have goal clarity. Understand what career you are choosing. Nobody knows you better than anybody else. Talk to your parents about your aspirations, explain to them the reasons why you want to do law, why you're interested, why it fits with your strengths. If there is a fit with your skill and the profession and you also like the profession, then great. Once you decide, then start the prep.

Thirdly, pick a mentor, pick a system and follow it. Pick whoever you trust and stick with them. The students who study with you are again a very important component. If you have a group of students who are equally talented, equally hardworking,and motivated, they push each other and motivate each other.