Preparing For One And Sitting Five Is How Candidates Lose Marks They Had Earned#
A law aspirant spends eighteen months on CLAT. They learn the five sections, they drill legal reasoning, they build a current affairs notebook, they practise elementary mathematics because quantitative techniques is on the syllabus.
Then they sit AILET a week later and discover there is no mathematics section at all, and that 150 questions are waiting in 120 minutes rather than 120. Then LSAT India, where there is no general knowledge section whatsoever and no penalty for a wrong answer, which means the careful abstention they trained for two years is now costing them marks.
None of this is hidden. All of it is published. But candidates internalise one paper's shape and carry its instincts into the others, and instincts are exactly what these differences punish.
The good news is that the content overlaps heavily. Reading comprehension, legal reasoning and logical reasoning appear across nearly all of them. What differs is the shape: which sections exist, how fast you must move, and whether a wrong answer costs you anything. Learn the shapes and a second or third examination costs you very little extra preparation.
Here is each one, as it actually is.
Background: What These Examinations Open#
CLAT. Conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, feeding more than twenty-seven NLUs. CLAT 2027 falls on 6 December 2026 in offline OMR mode, with applications closing on 31 October 2026.
AILET. Conducted by NLU Delhi, for NLU Delhi alone. This is the single most important fact about it. NLU Delhi does not participate in CLAT, so a CLAT score cannot get you there and an AILET score cannot get you anywhere else. AILET 2027 falls on 13 December 2026 in offline pen-and-paper mode from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, with applications closing on 10 November 2026.
SLAT. The Symbiosis Law Admission Test, for the Symbiosis law schools at Pune, Noida, Hyderabad and Nagpur. Conducted in computer-based mode across two dates, 19 December 2026 and 26 December 2026, and candidates may sit both with the higher score counted.
LSAT India. The Indian edition of the Law School Admission Test, administered by the Law School Admission Council. Accepted by over a hundred law colleges in India, and conducted twice a year.
MH CET Law. Conducted by the State Common Entrance Test Cell, Maharashtra, for admission to three-year LLB and five-year integrated LLB programmes at government, aided and private law colleges in the state. The 2027 five-year examination is scheduled for May 2027, with registration open from the first week of January to the last week of March 2027.
Two terms to fix before the comparison:
Pace. Questions divided by minutes. It sounds trivial and it is the single largest practical difference between these papers. A paper at 1.25 questions per minute demands a completely different attempt strategy from one at exactly one.
Negative marking. Whether a wrong answer costs you marks. Where it does not, leaving a question blank is pure loss and you should attempt everything.
The Five, Side By Side#
Look down the two rightmost columns. Those are where candidates lose marks they had already earned.
CLAT. 120 questions in 120 minutes across five sections: English, Current Affairs including General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Techniques. Negative marking applies. Every section is passage-based, which makes reading speed the underlying competency throughout.
AILET. 150 objective questions in 120 minutes across English, General Knowledge and Current Affairs, and Logical Reasoning. Two things follow. There is no quantitative section, so the elementary mathematics you prepared for CLAT is not needed here. And the pace is roughly 1.25 questions per minute rather than one, which is a meaningful step up. Candidates who pace themselves to CLAT rhythm run out of paper.
SLAT. Computer-based, across two December dates with the better score counting. Its accepting institutions are the Symbiosis law schools, so sitting it without wanting one of those is an examination day spent for nothing. Confirm the current pattern and marking in the official bulletin, since Symbiosis has revised its structure between cycles.
LSAT India. Four sections: Analytical Reasoning, two Logical Reasoning sections, and Reading Comprehension. No general knowledge. No current affairs. And no negative marking.
That last point should change your behaviour completely. If you have spent two years training to leave uncertain questions blank because CLAT penalises errors, that discipline is actively harmful here. Every blank is a guaranteed zero where a guess carries positive expected value. Finish the paper.
MH CET Law. 120 multiple-choice questions in 120 minutes in computer-based mode, one mark each, across Legal Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, General Knowledge and Current Affairs, English and Basic Mathematics. No negative marking, which again means you should attempt every question. Registration for the 2027 five-year examination runs from the first week of January to the last week of March 2027, with the examination in May 2027.
What Carries Across, And What Does Not#
The efficient way to think about a multi-examination plan.
Reading comprehension carries everywhere. Every one of these five papers is substantially a test of reading unfamiliar text quickly and reasoning about it accurately. Time spent building genuine reading capacity pays in all five and cannot be wasted. Read long-form non-fiction daily, state the author's main claim in one sentence afterwards, and identify one assumption they have not defended. That habit is worth more than any question bank.
Legal reasoning carries across four of the five. The skill is applying a principle supplied in the passage to a set of facts, without importing outside legal knowledge or moral intuition. LSAT India does not test it directly, but its analytical and logical reasoning sections exercise closely related muscles.
Logical reasoning carries everywhere, and LSAT India tests it with unusual depth across two dedicated sections. Preparing seriously for LSAT India improves your logical reasoning on every other paper.
General knowledge carries across three and is absent from LSAT India entirely. Fifteen minutes of newspaper reading daily, kept in one notebook across the year, serves CLAT, AILET, SLAT and MH CET Law together.
Elementary mathematics is needed for CLAT and MH CET Law, and not for AILET or LSAT India. It is a small section in both papers that need it, the content sits at roughly Class 10 level, and candidates from humanities streams routinely write it off. That is a dozen or so marks conceded to save a few hours, which is poor value in examinations where ranks cluster tightly.
What does not carry is pace and marking discipline. These have to be practised separately for each paper. Take at least three timed mocks in each examination's own format before sitting it, specifically to recalibrate your attempt rate and your guessing rule.
Building A Sensible Portfolio#
The calendar is generous if you plan it. CLAT on 6 December 2026, AILET a week later on 13 December, SLAT on 19 and 26 December, LSAT India across its own cycles, and MH CET Law in May 2027. That spread means you can genuinely sit several.
Always sit CLAT if you want an NLU. It opens more than twenty-seven of them and it is the widest-reach law entrance in the country.
Sit AILET if NLU Delhi interests you, which for most serious CLAT aspirants it will, since it is among the strongest law schools in India. The additional preparation is modest: drop the mathematics, raise your pace, and sit it. Note the earlier application deadline of 10 November 2026, which is three weeks before the examination and catches people out.
Sit MH CET Law if you have Maharashtra domicile. State examinations carry domicile advantages that are the single most underused asset in Indian admissions, and there is no negative marking, which rewards full attempting.
Sit SLAT only if you want a Symbiosis law school. The score is used within that system.
Sit LSAT India if you are strong at reasoning and weaker at general knowledge, since its structure plays directly to that profile, or if your target colleges accept it. With over a hundred accepting institutions and two cycles a year, it offers flexibility the others do not.
And gather your documents early, particularly domicile proof for state quota seats, which takes weeks to obtain and is verified in windows measured in days.
A Twelve-Month Preparation Timeline#
Working backwards from a December examination, here is a schedule that fits around Class 12.
Months one to three: build the base. Daily long-form reading, an hour a day. Start a current affairs notebook and keep it every day, because this material is absorbed rather than crammed. Work through elementary mathematics up to roughly Class 10 level and finish it early so it stops worrying you.
Months four to six: learn the reasoning. Legal reasoning through principle-application practice, focusing on applying exactly what the passage states rather than what you believe. Logical reasoning through argument analysis: identify the conclusion, the evidence and the unstated assumption in everything you read.
Months seven to nine: sectional practice under time. Individual sections against a clock, building accuracy before speed. Begin full-length mocks monthly.
Months ten to eleven: full mocks and format switching. Weekly full papers, and crucially alternate between the formats you will actually sit. Practise CLAT pace one day and AILET pace the next so the difference stops surprising you.
Final month: consolidate. Revise from your own error log rather than new material. Two or three mocks a week, no more. Current affairs revision from your notebook. Sleep normally.
Throughout: keep the reading habit. It is the one investment that pays in every section of every paper on this list.
Deadlines And Documents That Trip People Up#
The examinations are the visible part. These are the administrative failures that cost earned places.
Application deadlines arrive well before examinations. CLAT 2027 applications close on 31 October 2026 for a 6 December examination, and AILET on 10 November 2026 for 13 December. Candidates deep in preparation stop checking portals and miss them.
Correction windows are short and singular. A mistake in your category, name spelling or date of birth is fixable within a brief window and difficult afterwards.
Photograph and signature specifications are enforced. Dimensions, file size, background. Applications are rejected over this every year.
Category certificates must be in the prescribed format. A certificate that is valid for one purpose may not meet the format a particular authority requires. Check the specification in the brochure.
Domicile proof takes weeks. Start it months before you need it, particularly for state quota seats and state examinations.
Counselling is a separate registration from the examination. Clearing the paper without registering for counselling gets you nothing, and this is the most common single cause of lost seats.
Keep everything in one folder. Scanned, correctly sized, named clearly, with every receipt and confirmation email. When a verification window opens for three days, you want to be assembling nothing.
Frequently Asked Questions#
Can I use a CLAT score for NLU Delhi?#
No. NLU Delhi conducts AILET for its own seats and does not participate in CLAT. An AILET score likewise cannot be used at any other NLU. Candidates targeting both must sit both examinations, which fall a week apart in December 2026.
Does AILET have a mathematics section?#
No. AILET covers English, General Knowledge and Current Affairs, and Logical Reasoning, with 150 objective questions in 120 minutes. The quantitative techniques section you prepare for CLAT is not required.
Which law entrance exams have no negative marking?#
LSAT India and MH CET Law apply no penalty for wrong answers. In both, leaving a question blank is a guaranteed zero where a guess has positive expected value, so you should attempt everything. CLAT and AILET do penalise wrong answers.
How is LSAT India different from CLAT?#
LSAT India is purely reasoning-led, with Analytical Reasoning, two Logical Reasoning sections and Reading Comprehension. It has no general knowledge or current affairs section and no negative marking, which suits candidates strong at reasoning and weaker at memorising current affairs.
When is MH CET Law 2027 and who should sit it?#
The five-year LLB examination is scheduled for May 2027, with registration from the first week of January to the last week of March 2027. It is conducted by the Maharashtra State CET Cell and is most valuable for candidates with Maharashtra domicile, given state quota advantages.
Can I sit SLAT more than once?#
Yes. SLAT is conducted across two December dates, 19 and 26 December 2026, and candidates may appear on both with the higher score counted for the final percentile.
How much extra preparation does a second law entrance need?#
Usually little, since reading comprehension, legal reasoning and logical reasoning overlap heavily. The real work is recalibrating pace and marking discipline, which needs at least three timed mocks in each paper's own format.
Where should I confirm patterns and dates?#
On the official sources: consortiumofnlus.ac.in for CLAT, nationallawuniversitydelhi.in for AILET, the Symbiosis admissions portal for SLAT, the LSAC India site for LSAT India, and the Maharashtra State CET Cell for MH CET Law. Patterns and marking schemes change between cycles, so read the current bulletin rather than a previous year's summary.
