Why CLAT is a comprehension exam now, and a passage-by-passage method to raise both speed and accuracy.
CLAT stopped being a knowledge exam several years ago. Every section is now passage-based, which means the exam is testing one skill five different ways: can you read a dense passage quickly and answer precisely what was asked?
Legal reasoning passages do not require prior legal knowledge, and assuming otherwise is the most common mistake. The passage supplies the rule; your job is to apply it exactly as written, even when the outcome feels unfair. If your instinct disagrees with the rule in the passage, the rule wins. Train yourself to underline the operative rule and its exceptions before looking at the options.
Use a two-pass method on every passage. In the first pass, read for structure only — what is the rule, who are the parties, what changed. Do not stop for unfamiliar words. In the second pass, read the question first and then return to the specific lines that answer it. Students who read every passage once, slowly and completely, run out of time in the last section almost every attempt.
Current affairs still matters, but in a comprehension wrapper. Reading a good newspaper daily for one year builds both your general knowledge and your reading speed at the same time, which is why it remains the highest-return habit in CLAT preparation. Maintain a monthly one-page summary of significant national and international events rather than consuming daily compilations you never revise.
For quantitative techniques, the bar is Class 10 arithmetic applied to data sets — percentages, ratios, averages and simple interpretation. It is scoring and small; do not over-invest, but do not skip it either, because it is the easiest section to convert into full marks.
Finally, mock analysis. Take one full mock a week from six months out, two a week from three months out, and spend twice as long analysing as attempting. Your target metric is not score. It is sectional time spent versus marks earned, because CLAT is won by reallocating minutes from your weakest-return section to your strongest.