CLAT 2024 Topper Interview "Mock tests are incredibly important for CLAT preparation" says Rishi, AIR 78

Rishi secured AIR 78 in the recently concluded CLAT 2024 exam. He is also the second highest ranked candidate from Bihar in CLAT 2024. For Rishi, it was his maternal uncle who inspired him to take up law. He believes reading newspapers and solving mock tests are the two very important things for CLAT. Rishi hasn’t thought much about the future as he prepares himself to enrol in NLSIU Bengaluru – his preferred choice. Read on to find out more as he shares his success story with Careers360.

Hi Rishi, Congratulations on your CLAT rank! What was the feeling when you first saw your rank? What were your expectations from CLAT 2024 results?

Hey there, thanks a bunch! When I first saw my result, I was overwhelmed. When you see yourself ranking under 100 in such a highly competitive exam like CLAT, it's natural to feel good about it. The same happened to me as well, I was totally ecstatic when I was exposed to that magic number AIR 78.

Coming to the second question; like every other aspirant I was hoping to secure a spot in one of the top law schools. When I wrote the paper on 3rd December, I was confident enough that I would be getting a Rank under Top 50. After doing all the calculations and verifications with the help of the final answer key provided by the consortium, I was expecting my rank to be around 100.

Tell us more about yourself, your educational background, the place you belong to, and your family background.

I come from a very small village in Bihar, though I completed my schooling from Patna. I am yet to appear for my intermediate examination which is scheduled to be held in February. So basically I had taken CLAT while I was still in Class 12th and fortunately cracked it with my dream NLU. My parents are working in private jobs.

What motivated you to appear in CLAT 2024? When did your interest for law develop and what are your future aspirations?

Like every other student, I was very confused about what career choice to make out of plenty of options available nowadays. Confusion becomes problematic when you do not have enough guidance. It was my maternal uncle who is also a law graduate from Chanakya National Law University, Patna who provided me with every detail about CLAT and other law entrance exams. I also started taking interest, doing research and knowing the nuances of CLAT and that's where the journey started.
As far as future aspirations are concerned, I haven't pondered upon this, I think the college and place you will be going will also be a contributory factor in deciding your future aspirations. So, let's see what happens next. I would have loved to answer this question in a definite manner, but for now I don't really have the answer.

What colleges and courses are you targeting with this rank?

It's an obvious one. I always wanted to be a part of NLSIU Bangalore and now that I am getting the same, I would love to join NLSIU Bangalore. As we all know NLSIU have increased their intake this year from 240 to 300, I will easily make it with this rank. As I am doing my intermediate in Arts stream, I will be pursuing B.A.LLB there.

Coming to your preparation, how and when did you start CLAT preparation? What motivated you to go for legal studies?

I started my preparation just after my matriculation. My maternal uncle is a law graduate who inspired me to pursue law as a career. After joining CLAT FOCUS Tutorials which is run and managed by my uncle himself, I started doing my own research on the internet and watched a lot of videos to know more about law as a career and opportunities available after it. Now I am happy that I didn't opt for a wrong career option at that time.

What was your daily preparation schedule like? How many hours did you allocate to each section and CLAT preparation overall in a day?

As you know CLAT checks your ability to comprehend written texts. So you have to be either a diverse reader or someone who is ready to devote the time it demands to get the level of reading and comprehension required. So in the beginning I was studying for 4-5 hours a day and it gradually increased to 7-8 hours as the examination date was approaching close.

Most of my time was spent on reading newspapers, articles, editorials, and blogs. And if I found something complex, I approached the mentors and they were ready to help. Talking about the time allocation against each section, it wasn't very much organised but I made sure of reading a newspaper daily for at least 2 hours. I didn’t spend much time on the legal reasoning section at home as classes in the coaching institute were sufficient to cover the section. I was good at mathematics so it was a cakewalk for me, I didn’t spend much time. I just went through the resources provided by the institute once and it was done for me. I used to spend around 1 hour each on English and Critical Reasoning each day.

Which section of the CLAT exam did you find the most challenging?

I come from an environment where English is respected a lot but nobody is trying to take a leap to make the language accessible like your school, parents, coaching or whoever it be. Considering all these things, I think English and Critical Reasoning were the most challenging sections but gradually I developed an interest in diverse reading and by the end of the day it became my area of strength.

What are important subjects and topics that one must cover for CLAT preparation?

Current CLAT syllabus mostly demands diverse reading and the ability to comprehend complex texts. As we all know CLAT is conducted only in English, so English is the core of the exam. So one must be good in English and should focus on subjects like English, Legal Reasoning and Current Affairs the most as these are scoring subject areas. I must also add Quantitative Techniques which was the rank deciding subject (at least for me) in CLAT exam.

Tell us about the subject wise books or study materials you followed for CLAT preparation?

For me the study materials provided by my coaching institute was sufficient. I was provided with subject wise theory as well as practice book. I seriously solved and analysed the previous year question papers of CLAT to get the basic understanding of CLAT Syllabus and quality of questions they ask. If you go through the syllabus you won’t find any relevant book as such in the market. But I did solve passages given in Lawmann’s CLAT book titled “Passage Based Questions for CLAT”.

In the legal aptitude section, the consortium says that prior knowledge of law is not required to answer questions. How was your experience with the legal aptitude section?

This is partly correct as some questions demand prior knowledge of law whereas many of them can be solved if you have a fair enough idea of what is happening around the world. Now, in CLAT most of the passages are based on recent legal topics and not from conventional subjects of law like Law of Torts, Contract, Criminal Laws etc.
In the Legal Reasoning section I was good from the beginning. I like this particular section the most as it is interesting and scoring. I believe this is the most loved subject of CLAT syllabus by almost every other serious aspirant.

How did you prepare for current affairs including legal current affairs? Is it necessary to read newspapers daily?

The primary source was the monthly compendium provided by my institute. But as soon as you start intensifying your preparation, the compendium is never going to be enough, so I started to make my own notes of each topic by collecting resources from different sites such as Drishti IAS ,vision IAS, and many other websites.

I believe reading newspapers is a must do thing for every CLAT aspirant. Reading newspapers will also be very useful in the Current Affairs section. Also, newspapers will keep you updated about the legal current affairs section.

Did you solve sample papers and mock tests? If yes, how important do you think the mock tests are for CLAT preparation?

Yes, I did solve CLAT sample papers provided by the consortium. I also solved many mock tests provided by my coaching institute. I believe mock tests are incredibly important for CLAT prep. They simulate the exam environment, help in time management, and identify weak areas for improvement. They also familiarise you with the exam pattern, making you more confident on the big day. For me, mock tests were the key to success in CLAT.

With the revised paper pattern, is CLAT still a lengthy paper? What was your time-management strategy on the day of the exam?

For a student coming from a non-English background, it is still very lengthy. I have heard about so many aspirants who were not able to make the maximum attempts even after the revised CLAT pattern of 120 questions. But it is not that difficult if you are in the habit of good reading and have the ability to comprehend the same. Here time management becomes crucial. My strategy was to quickly scan through the paper, tackling easier sections first to build momentum, and allocating specific time slots for each section to ensure I complete the paper within the time given.

What other law entrance exams did you appear for apart from CLAT? How did they go?

I was completely focused on CLAT. I have to write my 12th Board Examination in February. I believe apart from CLAT and AILET, other Law entrance exams have not been conducted yet. My strategy was to focus on other law entrance exams only after my board exams. I would have sufficient time to prepare for the same as my basic concepts of all subjects are done. I just have to strategize on the pattern and take mock tests.