CLAT vs AIAT - A comparative analysis on postgraduate programs in law

By Vaishnavi Shukla

Seeking admission in LLM? Check out a comparative analysis between CLAT, one of the biggest law entrance exams in India and AIAT, a reputed exam conducted by a private law institute. 

All the readers here are either fresh law school graduates who are very ambitious of obtaining a chance to study in the premier institutions or working professionals who are managing their time between work and study, to crack the exams conducted by premier institutions. This article speaks of exams conducted by two premier institutions – one which is a private university and one which is controlled by the government.

Every individual falling in one of the two categories as aforementioned take the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) in addition to a number of other law entrance exams. CLAT is plan-A and all other exams are plan-B, if plan-A doesn’t work, there’s always plan-B.

Given India, which is one of the world’s largest countries, the exam takers are also large in number. It is practically impossible to cover every exam conducted in India for postgraduate studies in law, hence, I have selected the top two exams conducted in India for LLM aspirants - CLAT and All India Admission Test (AIAT), conducted by a top private institution.

CLAT

CLAT as we all know is conducted every year and lakhs of people appear for this exam to secure a seat in one of the National Law Universities (NLUs). It is fancy yes, and who doesn’t like premier law schools, providing premier environment and academic excellence? National Law Universities are single-discipline universities that offer law degrees to candidates.

The CLAT Syllabus covers the following:

1. Constitutional Law                
2. Jurisprudence   
3. Other subjects like Indian Contract Law, Cr.PC, Law of Torts, Family Law, Intellectual Property rights, International Law etc.

Negative Marking: 0.25 marks are deducted for each incorrect answer in the exam.

CLAT ensures that students have detailed knowledge on the subjects listed in syllabus and are thorough with every aspect of it. Guess work does not help in this exam owing to negative marking. Also, preparing one week before the exam does not ensure positive results. In order to crack CLAT you need perseverance, discipline, immense hard work, and dedicated studying for 2-4 hours every day, unless you’re a working professional. Not just these, but time management plays a key role in cracking this exam and you must shape your mind as a machine; if one exercise paper takes you 2 hours, then try solving it in 1 hour 45 minutes or 1.5 hours at max. This gives you more time in hand to ascertain your answers and evaluate your paper.

AIAT

All India Admission Test (AIAT) on the other hand, is conducted for admission in Symbiosis Law School, one of the premier private institutions. Unlike CLAT, this exam tests your basic legal knowledge, research aptitude, legal aptitude and teaching aptitude.

The process to get into AIAT to pursue LLM has the following steps:

1. Apply through online application and by attaching your CV and marking your subject preferences
2. Once you receive an e-mail confirmation saying your CV has been shortlisted, prepare for the exam
3. Carry necessary documents and read up thoroughly on current affairs
4. Appear for the exam
5. Attend the personal interview, soon after the exam
6. Do well, breathe in
7. Let the clock tick and check the website for the results
8. Don’t lose hope if your name doesn’t appear in the first merit list, there are 3-4 merit lists each year
9. Once selected, take admission and do well

The good thing about AIAT is that, it doesn’t place 100% weightage on the exam. The exam and the personal interview have 70%, 30% weightage respectively. The exam is not easy, because in addition to the MCQs (multiple choice questions), students are required to write a long essay (mostly on a landmark decision, current affair event etc) and it carries major marks. If you lose this, a major chunk of marks is lost so thorough reading is a must.

The curriculum on admission, is quite hectic as you will be occupied with internals and thesis all year around, in addition to the exam.

The myth about private institutions not being good enough is broken, once you step inside a premier private institution. The fear surrounding CLAT failure needs to be eliminated as that does not decide your future as a lawyer. Going for plan-B in life does not make you any different from the rest of plan-A goers; it only breaks various myths surrounding plan-B goers.

Most importantly, one thing that you need to frame in your heads is that the college only helps you in showing a good direction, but ultimately it’s you who have to emerge victorious in that situation. The name of the college wouldn’t matter if you have a brilliant legal mind, you will outshine everyone.

There’s a video on this article by me, describing much more on this topic which you can access below:

About the Author:

Vaishnavi Shukla

I am Vaishnavi Shukla, Corporate Attorney – India Head at Loyal Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, an exclusive franchisee of Empire Group of Hotels. I pursued law at the graduation level from Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies (BILS). Further, I did my LLM from Symbiosis Law School, Pune.