Crack CLAT 2026 with tips from past years toppers

Preparing for CLAT 2026? Know here the preparation strategy and some helpful tips as shared by CLAT toppers from past years. Read here to know section-wise tips. 

The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) will be conducting the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2026 on December 7, 2025. Candidates must submit CLAT Application Form on or before the deadline to appear in CLAT 2026. The law entrance exam is conducted for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate law courses offered at 24 NLUs for the academic year 2026-2027. CLAT 2026 will be conducted on the similar lines as the previous years i.e. as a paper-based test mode and will carry English, Legal Reasoning, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Quantitative Techniques and  Logical Reasoning. 

Also Read: Idioms and Proverbs for CLAT 2026 With Meaning

CLAT 2026 Preparation Strategy from Toppers

Candidates need to prepare for the exam indispensably same as previous years test-takers to secure a good rank in CLAT 2026. The preparation strategy for CLAT requires equal labor as the difficulty of the question paper completely depends on the preparedness of the test-taker. Here are some tips from toppers to make an effective strategy for CLAT 2026: 

• Make a Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Schedule
• Make methodical notes 
• Subject-wise conceptualisation 
• Practice CLAT mock tests, sample papers as well as, past years' papers
• Effective revision and preparation evaluation/ analysis

Also Read: CLAT Questions for Practice with Solutions: Free PDF Download

CLAT Topper Tips (2025-2015)

To help candidates perform well in CLAT 2026, Shiksha has compiled a set of tips and tricks from previous years’ CLAT exam toppers. Aspirants can follow the success mantras of CLAT toppers to score well in the examination.

CLAT 2025 Topper Saksham Gautam, AIR 1 opens up about his journey and the strategies that helped him ace one of the most challenging law entrance exams in the country. In an exclusive interview with Shiksha.com, Saksham shares invaluable preparation tips, insights into his study routine, and advice for future CLAT aspirants. 

CLAT 2024 Topper Jai Kumar Bohara, AIR 1, says "Good score in Board exams doesn't guarantee you a good college. I did not study any extra books. I studied only the material I was given by the coaching center. I ensure I solve mock tests and practice papers. I tried to maintain a consistent score while solving the mock tests. This helped me to approach both the easy and difficult sections of the entrance exam."

CLAT 2023 AIR 1, Abhinav Somani, shared that his main strategy was reading the newspaper and giving mocks. I read the newspapers religiously and made notes from them. The newspaper also helps you with your vocabulary, reading speed and comprehension ability. I also gave mocks regularly. I had a study group with 4 of my friends and we used to give mocks together. We started with 1 mock a week in January 2022, bumping it up to 5-6 per week by October 2022. 

CLAT 2019 Topper - AIR 1, Saumya Singh who was the AILET topper scored 177.25 out of 200 marks. Saumya shares the following tips to candidates:

• Be consistent with your studies
• Give time to subjects according to your strengths and weaknesses, however, do not get out of touch with any subject
• Make your own notes and revise them regularly
• Overcome your weaknesses and revised the topics that are your strengths regularly
• Take as many mock tests as possible

CLAT 2019 Topper - AIR 2, Harsh Tomar secured 176.75 out of 200 marks. Some of the prep tips by Harsh include:

• Prepare a study schedule everyday and complete it
• Focused on accuracy and speed equally; set a timer and attempt Maths and Logical Reasoning questions within a time limit
• Read minimum two English newspapers everyday
• Work harder on your weak subjects
• Revising what you study is the key to success
• Attempt approximately 50 CLAT mock tests and analyse them carefully

CLAT 2018 Topper - AIR 1, Aman Garg who scored 159 marks out of 200 shared that candidates appearing for the exam this year need to careful of the following things: 

• Do not take CLAT for granted. Every year the competition is rising tremendously 
• Start your CLAT prep as early as possible to gain an early bird advantage
• Keep your study sources, GK sources and handouts as diversified as you can
• Take as many mock tests as you can and from as many different institutes as you can
• Analyse your mocks and work on your weaknesses

CLAT 2018 Topper - AIR 6, Shikhar Aggarwal scored 148 marks out of 200. On preparation strategy for CLAT 2020, he said, candidates need to: 

• Be calm, be focused
• Don't let a bad mock exam demoralise you
• Don't get intimidated by what others at the coaching centre are doing. What matters is your performance on the day of the exam and the effort behind it
• Moreover, candidates can refer to the important prep material - Annual CLAT books by Arihant, Universal’s Guide to CLAT to improve scores

CLAT 2017 Topper - AIR 1, Rajat Maloo shared that candidates need to be regular and punctual in their studies and never lie to themselves. Important books and study material that helped him score 154.25 marks out of 200 are - Static GK by Tarun Goyal, Critical Reasoning by MK Pandey, GK Today (website). 

CLAT 2017 Topper - AIR 3, Radhika Sarda scored 148.5 marks out of 200. For the CLAT exam aspirants, she shared that candidates should not mug up books but rather focus on clearing the concepts from the syllabus of each subject. She added candidates can take help of preparation material such as Competition in Focus (CIF) and Pratiyogita Darpan for GK, GK Today (website), Affairs Cloud (website) etc.

CLAT 2017 Topper - AIR 4, Sumit Kumar Gupta shared that candidates need to: 

• Stick to the time table and stretch themselves to cover a wide range of topics
• Solve plenty of mock tests and work on their weaknesses to improve speed and accuracy 

He added, preparation material including, Current Affairs from The Hindu (newspaper), Qualitative English by S Chand publication, Quantitative Mathematics by RS Aggarwal helped him a lot and he could score 147.7 marks out of 200. 

CLAT 2016 Topper - AIR 1, Viraj Ananth scored 174.5 marks out of 200, and shared that candidates need to prepare for their upcoming exam keeping following things in mind:

• Spend time on preparing for GK section to cover past years events
• Give mock tests to identify your strengths and weaknesses
• Make a strategy to manage time, improve speed and accuracy for all sections 

Important books and prep material according to him are - Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by R S Aggarwal, GK Today (website)

CLAT 2015 Topper - AIR 1, Akash Jain scored 143.75 marks and, he shared preparation tips for the exam aspirants as under: 

• Solve as many mock tests as possible
• Solve previous years’ question papers
• Identify strengths and weaknesses and work on them
• Focus on Maths, Legal & Logical Reasoning sections
• Refer to important books such as - Quantitative Aptitude for mathematics, Logical Reasoning books by R S Agarwal 

Candidates appearing for CLAT exam not only aim to score well but get such a good rank that can get them into top NLUs in India. Therefore, they churn themselves into CLAT preparation completely. However, all the exam aspirants should know that none of the toppers has stressed themselves due to exam stress rather they prepared in a strategic manner to cover the entire syllabus as well as, improve test-taking skills.

CLAT 2026 Exam Pattern, Syllabus: An Overview

Candidates appearing for CLAT 2026 should be in sync with the CLAT exam pattern and CLAT syllabus. The exam pattern of CLAT was modified for last year, and it is now as under: 

CLAT exam pattern 

CLAT Syllabus 2026

Candidates should be able to secure a good rank in CLAT 2026 with effective strategies as shared by the toppers in the past years. 

Read More: 

• Important books for CLAT preparation
• Important topics to study from CLAT 2026 syllabus