What is a good score in CLAT 2024? Detailed analysis and previous year cut-offs

NEW DELHI: Around 50,000 candidates appeared for the Common Law Admission Test for admission into law programmes of participating National Law Universities (NLUs) and other affiliated colleges. CLAT 2024 was conducted on December 3, 2023 in offline mode at around 139 test centres in the country. The competition is intense and will lead to much discussion about what is a good score in CLAT 2024. The CLAT cut offs are going to be an important determining factor for it.

CLAT 2024 Exam Analysis - Student Reactions

As per feedback received from most of the students who appeared for the exam, CLAT 2024 was easy.

In the current affairs section, questions were from recent past events and did not revolve too much around general knowledge. The english language and the legal reasoning sections were easy but tricky. Many students found logical reasoning and maths to be the difficult sections in CLAT 2024.

CLAT 2024 Analysis by Experts

The experts also echoed the sentiments expressed by students. The analysis of CLAT 2024 conducted by Harsh Gagrani, Co-founder of LegalEdge by Toprankers, suggests that the difficulty level of the CLAT 2024 exam was easy to moderate.

In his opinion, the GK, legal reasoning, and english sections were easy, while the logical reasoning and maths were moderately difficult. He believes 105+ questions would be a good attempt, and a score of 90+ is a good CLAT score to get admission into the top 3 NLUs.

Good Score in CLAT Under Revised Pattern

For this year the Consortium of NLUs had revised the CLAT exam pattern by reducing the number of questions to 120 in CLAT UG. As a result, the total marks in the exam was 120.

Last year, an average percentage score of around 66% was a good score in CLAT. A general category candidate needed to score around 110 marks for gaining admission into top ranked NLUs. However this year, the CLAT 2024 cut-off is expected to be higher, as the exam was less difficult. The CLAT 2024 exam analysis suggests the cut-off will go above 90 marks for top 3 NLUs. Out of 120, candidates should try to score between 80-90+marks to have a good shot at one of the top ten NLUs.

For NLUs lower down the order, one needs to score around 65% i.e. 80 marks out of 120. In the past, a much lower ranked and new NLU such as DBRANLU Sonipat has offered admission to students securing 70-72 marks out of 150 i.e. a percentage score of 46-48%.

It’s also essential to understand that change in the marks is not likely to have a bearing on the trend seen in opening and closing ranks of top NLUs. The NLU preferences of candidates is not likely to see any drastic change. It is also important to note that NLSIU Bengaluru has increased its UG intake to 300 from 240 last year which means more students can be accomodated. Also, the number of CLAT 2024 seats is around 3300 this year.

CLAT 2023 General Category Cut Off Rank

Good CLAT Score for NLU Admission

Earlier trends suggest that top NLUs such as NLSIU Bengaluru, NALSAR Hyderabad, WBNUJS Kolkata and NLU Jodhpur are expected to remain the top choices for candidates in that order. A good score for tier 1 NLUs would be over 90+ marks out of 120.

Tier 2 NlUs are also very popular among law aspirants. These include names such as NLIU Bhopal and RMLNLU Lucknow, NLU Odisha, among others. A good CLAT score to gain admission in these NLUs would be in the range of 85-90 marks.

Tier 3 NLUs include those universities which are placed at the lower end of the rankings table and are newly established. Candidates with around 80 marks would be able to gain admission into these NLUs.

Law schools such as DBRANLU Sonipat and NLU Tripura are relatively new. Candidates can get admission to these colleges with around 50-55% marks. It must be kept in mind that just because a university is newly established does not mean it is not a good choice. For instance, MNLU Mumbai, which is relatively new, is also emerging as one of the preferred choices for candidates. Similarly, GNLU Silvassa Campus is also a very young institute. However, it is a preferred choice among candidates.