Not all topics carry equal weight on CLAT. Some appear in every paper, others show up once in three years. This page breaks down every testable topic across all five CLAT sections, rated by priority (High, Medium, Low) based on frequency analysis of CLAT papers from 2020 to 2026. Use this as your preparation checklist — focus on High-priority topics first, then expand to Medium and Low as time allows.
Legal Reasoning and Current Affairs carry 28-32 marks each — together they are over half the paper. Begin your preparation with the High-priority topics in these two sections. A student who masters these has a strong foundation before touching the other three sections.
A rough allocation: Legal Reasoning (25%), Current Affairs (25%), English (20%), Logical Reasoning (20%), Quantitative Techniques (10%). Within each section, spend 60% of time on High-priority topics, 30% on Medium, and 10% on Low.
After covering High-priority topics, take a mock test. If you are scoring 80%+ on High-priority questions, move to Medium. If not, go deeper on High before expanding. Mock tests are the feedback mechanism that tells you whether your topic coverage is translating into marks.
Low-priority topics appear infrequently, but when they do, they are often the easiest questions in the paper because fewer students prepare for them. Cover these in the final month of preparation as a way to pick up 3-5 additional marks.
Print this checklist or maintain a spreadsheet. At the end of each week, mark which topics you have covered. Visual tracking prevents blind spots and ensures you are not over-preparing one section while neglecting another.
The highest-weighted section. Questions present a legal principle and fact pattern — you apply the principle to reach the answer. Familiarity with legal areas accelerates your reading speed, but the answer always comes from the passage.
Tests awareness of events from the past 12 months through passage-based questions. Static GK (polity, history, geography) appears only through current event passages. Daily newspaper reading is non-negotiable for this section.
Tests reading comprehension through 400-word passages from diverse sources — editorials, academic texts, literary criticism, and opinion pieces. No grammar or vocabulary is tested in isolation.
Tests the ability to identify and evaluate arguments. Passages present an argument, and questions ask about premises, conclusions, assumptions, and logical flaws. No formal logic (syllogisms, truth tables) is tested.
The lowest-weighted section but also the easiest to score full marks in. All questions are passage-based, typically involving data tables, charts, or graphs. The mathematics required is Class 10 level — arithmetic, percentages, ratios.
Across all five sections, the High-priority topics account for roughly 70-75% of CLAT questions based on analysis of papers from 2020 to 2026. A student who thoroughly covers all High-priority topics should be able to attempt 85-90 questions out of 120 with confidence. The Medium-priority topics add another 20-25 questions of coverage, and Low-priority topics account for the remaining 5-10 questions that vary year to year.
The most important topics for CLAT 2027 are Legal Reasoning (torts, contracts, constitutional law), Current Affairs (polity, judiciary, international relations from the past 12 months), English (reading comprehension and inference), Logical Reasoning (argument analysis), and Quantitative Techniques (data interpretation). Legal Reasoning and Current Affairs together carry over 50% of the marks.
Prioritise by weightage and difficulty. Legal Reasoning (28-32 marks) and Current Affairs (28-32 marks) should get 50-60% of your preparation time. Within each section, focus on High priority topics first, then Medium, and cover Low priority topics only after the core is strong.
Yes. Every question in CLAT 2027 is passage-based. There are no standalone MCQs. This means topic knowledge alone is insufficient — you must be able to read a passage and apply concepts in context.