CLAT Exam Pattern 2026 (Revised): Total Questions, Negative Marking, Topic-Wise Weightage, Total Marks

The CLAT exam for both the undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be conducted for 2-hour; i.e. 2 pm to 4 pm. Candidates must note that the exam will be conducted in offline mode. There will be 120 MCQs. Total number of sections in the question paper will be five. 

According to the CLAT exam pattern, there will be no deduction of marks for unanswered questions. Such questions will not be taken into consideration while calculating the total marks of a candidate. Hence, if candidates are not sure about the answer of a question, it is better to leave it unattempted rather than doing a guess work, to avoid negative marking.

There will be no sectional qualifying criterion for CLAT 2026. The overall marks will be considered while preparing the merit list for CLAT. But to ensure a good score, candidates must ensure a high number of attempts with full accuracy. 

It totally depends on you that when you should start preparing for CLAT. If you want really good marks in board exams, focus on that at first and then prepare for CLAT. If you can manage boards and CLAT preparation side by side then go for it, but do not affect your board scores.

Candidates can check the CLAT 2026 Marking Scheme below

CLAT Marking Parameters	Marks Awarded
Correct answer	+1 marks
Incorrect answer	-0.25 marks
Un-attempted question	0 marks

The mode of the CLAT exam is offline or paper-based mode. Candidates are handed over hardcopy of CLAT question paper and OMR sheets to answer the questions. Candidates will have to be careful while filling OMR sheet as any scratch or cuts in the OMR sheet will lead to disqualification. 

While it is not impossible, it is a really challenging task. To score well, you must start preparing for CLAT at least six months before. It is very important to score well if you are looking forward to getting into good NLU. For top 10 NLU, you at least need to score between 100 to 105 as per past trends.

The CLAT Syllabus is published by the Consortium. The syllabus has been announced. Candidates who are preparing for the exam must note that there are no changes made in the syllabus so far.  Candidates can check the syllabus by visiting the official website. You can only download the PDF from website.

 The process to access official sample papers of CLAT 2026 is as under-

1. Go the official website
2. Login and click on attempt sample paper
3. You will now see sample instructions on your screen
4. Read the instructions and click on 'Start Mock Test'
5. Attempt the question paper

Yes, candidates who have regsitered for the CLAT exam can access the sample papers through their login credentials. They can practice the questions for all the sections. This exercise will help to evaluate the areas that are strong and weak and needs more attention. 

Hi Paras, The strategy for the GA portion is: Current Affairs: The Hindu Newspaper + Daily current affairs through any good online website (bankers adda, Mrunal, Insight, etc.). Also, focus on business, sports, international, national, etc. news Static GK: A basic knowledge of History, Geography and Sciences will suffice.Try to focus more on Indian history. The world history questions are rarely asked. In geography, the emphasis should be laid on world and Indian geography. For science, please focus more on the day to day general science questions. Also, give due weightage to Inventors, discoveries and past Nobel prize winners etc.

To prepare for this section which cover 10 percent marks of the total CLAT paper it is important to have a right approach. Candidates must note that you can score really well if you study the Class 19 level mathematics properly. Be regular and plan strategically rather than trying to learn advance maths,