CLAT Time Management Tips & Tricks 2026

Exam Pattern For CLAT 2026

As we see the CLAT exam is a pen-and-paper test of 120 questions consisting of 1 mark each. There are namely five sections that are English Language, Current Affairs, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and lastly Quantitative Techniques (Elementary Mathematics). Each section's weightage is different according to the number of questions in it. Know more about the CLAT marking scheme through this Article.

Time Management Tips for CLAT 2026

All the other sections except for Quantitative Techniques are passage-based sections which have passages comprising 450-500 words. Hence, it becomes challenging to read, comprehend and answer approximately 100 questions from all four sections in 1 hour of time. Therefore, time management is one of the most essential aspects of a competitive entrance exam like CLAT. So, Here are some tips and tricks that’ll help you to smoothly help in divide your time among all five sections and distribute equal attention to it as well. The CLAT Time Management 2024 tips are as follows.

1. As already mentioned earlier, four out of five sections are passage-based which implies that it’ll require you to improve and enhance your reading skills. Approximately, 1.5-2 hours of reading daily, is necessary for every candidate to avoid reading problems in your CLAT question paper. Thereafter, develop habits of skim reading while you are reading newspapers or articles. Skimming or skim reading is a process in which you quickly go through a particular text and get a rough idea or clarity of what that text is trying to portray. This will aid you in understanding as well as comprehending the paragraph without missing anything important in it.
2. The second and most important part of managing your time in the exam is giving ample mocks before appearing for the main exam. Mocks help you to know your strengths and weaknesses.
3. Third is, to go back to the basics. After giving CLAT mock tests, you also get an idea about your preparation of how much have you excelled or how much you lack in certain topics. If you feel that you need to focus more on a particular section or a certain topic of that section, go back to your notes or seek assistance from your mentors.
4. Furthermore, it is most likely to happen that, the strategy you decided during mocks might not be effective enough for the main exam. In such a situation, first, calm down your mind for a second and move to another section. For example, you decided in your mocks that you would start attempting the Legal Reasoning section, but it turned out to be the most difficult one in the main exam.
5. Fourth is, dividing your time for each section after the question paper is given to you. Give 1 minute to go through the essence of each section and distribute your time according to your convenience. For example, you have decided to give 30 mins to the GK section, try to solve the entire section within 30 mins itself and move ahead after 30 mins even if the section is not completely attempted.
6. Start reading the instructions given to you behind the answer booklet so that once you get your question booklet you get a stance to read it. This will prevent you from turtle-reading of initial questions.
7. Don’t HURRY! You must keep yourself calm and relaxed during the exam to avoid wrongful marking of questions.

Also, check - How to Prepare for CLAT Exam 2026

Section Wise Distribution of Time For CLAT 2026

Because the CLAT exam consists of only 120 minutes and is passage-based, students must manage their time well across the five sections.

• CLAT English reading: In this section, there is a lot of reading material based on which you have to answer all the questions and therefore a minimum of 30 minutes should be given to this section so that barely you can solve 25-28 questions that are almost 90% of the total weightage.
• General Knowledge: In this section, there are passages though but mostly all the questions can be solved without reading the paragraph. Hence, in general, you have to answer the GK section by just reading the question and the options given to it. Therefore, giving 25 mins is more than enough for this part of the paper also because in this section there is a possibility that you either know the answer surely or else you’re completely unaware of it. So, you don’t have to spend your time thinking of the answer.
• Legal Reasoning: This section is among the most important sections of the paper and that is why there is a need to give ample time to this particular section. There are passages which are to be read along with the legal technicalities and terms. Therefore, providing enough time for this section is very essential as it also contains a heavy amount of weight.
• Logical Reasoning: This section is moderate and giving 25-30 minutes to it is sufficient. However, you might feel uncertainty while answering the questions in this section. Therefore, is advisable to skip such questions and move forward to avoid the consequences of negative marking.
• Quantitative Techniques: Lastly, this section consists of basic mathematical problems which are not as time-consuming as other sections and the number of questions is also comparatively lesser it. It contains direct questions along with four options as mentioned earlier and hence giving it 10-12 mins is more than enough. Also, you can grab the maximum number of marks from this section.