A Vision Called NALSAR – By Ridhi Shetty (AIR 105 – CLAT 2017)

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Ridhi Shetty, who clinched Rank 105 in CLAT this year, has beautifully summed up the dos and don’ts that must be kept in mind during your CLAT Prep. 

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man,
But, sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can”

In the month of March, a little over a year ago, I came across law as a career option for the first time; courtesy, Ananya Patwardhan, a great friend, and AIR 19 in CLAT 2017.

Ridhi Shetty

Being a science student (who was no longer interested in fulfilling her father’s long standing dream of having one daughter become a doctor), the idea of CLAT and law seemed as an escape for me, from doing something I had no proclivity to. As corny as it sounds, I always wanted to bring about a change, and Law seemed something that would give me just that opportunity. I decide to give CLAT a chance; it wasn’t easy trying to convince my parents, quite the struggle. Hence, to create a more convincing argument to present in front of them along with attempting to put things into perspective for myself, I decide to make a vision board. A Google search for “law schools in India”, little scrolling, trip to the xeroxwaala and I had everything I wanted for my vision board. There were two pictures of the statue of Lady Justice or Themis, one of a hostel room and the other of graduating students. It was only after I joined coaching classes did I realize that most of the pictures that I had picked out were pictures of National Academy of Legal Research and Studies, Hyderabad. That day I decide if I did make it to a law school, it might as well be NALSAR.

I’d like to share a few tips I kept handy that could be of your use as well, especially for the ones who just found out about CLAT and are attempting to kick-start their prep.

  • START NOW.

Yes, people crack CLAT in a month, but, that does not give you a free pass to start preparing in the month of April. Trust me, April is not the month you want to be starting your CLAT prep especially when you almost have a year on hand.

  • DO YOUR DAMN CURRENT GK

The newspapers vs. apps debate will never settle. So, try both this month and see what works for you the best. But, whatever you do, please make notes .Trust me, you will not remember everything just after reading an article once; notes will help you at the fag end of your prep when you will have to do GK from all the months, together. Notes are better than any yearbook for me, please refer to compendiums, it would be advisable to stick to compendiums from only one website; don’t go berserk trying to do 350 pages of GK from ten different websites – you are only troubling yourself here. For static, I would advise you to go berserk and crazy, read up on different websites, keep searching for more information, get hold of a Pearson and try to re-read everything.

Pro-tip: GK is the most unpredictable thing after Donald Trump himself. CLAT 2017 GK shocked a lot of people; however, it was pretty good for me, and maybe that was because I not only referred to newspapers and apps, I also tried to read articles on websites like Quint, Huffington Post, Livemint, etc. If you have time after newspapers and apps, please do refer to such websites.

  • PRACTICE PAST PAPERS

Practice past year papers, and if possible pre-CLAT papers as well. By past year, I mean previous papers of SET, AILET and LSAT too. Solve them like a mock. And look out for things that keep repeating – there is a high chance that they might just appear again.

  • GIVE MOCKS AND ANALYSE THEM

You will hear this every time you read such an article, and you might as well follow the advice.

I would say start giving mocks from September. It is fine if you have not finished studying the “syllabus”, no one does. Just start giving mocks, and see where you are not scoring and work on those areas. You can increase the number of mocks a month as you progress through this year.

I gave three mocks a day during the last week of April and the first week of May. I don’t recommend doing this because this will leave you really exhausted. And, the number of mocks you give do not matter. What matters is the number of mocks you analyze and take feedback from.

  • MOCK SCORES

If you get a low score in your first few mocks or a ranking that’s very dismal, do not fret. You can’t expect yourself to figure in the top 10 suddenly. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Also, if you get a rank one in any mock series, don’t get too smug; rank 1 in a sample space of 100 doesn’t count.

Mock scores should show consistent progress; my first 15 mocks were in the range of 110-115, the next increased to 130ish, I hit 150s in the last week of April.

Besides marks don’t matter, rank does. With a score of 132.75 in CLAT 2017 you would have a rank of 105-110; in 2016 you would hardly make it in to the top 1000.

(Note from Admin: Marks do matter because you need to keep a steady pace, as mentioned above. A rank given during mock tests is at times very misleading and can put one off the guard, instilling over-confidence. All you should focus on is your own performance.)

  • DO NOT IGNORE MATHS

A lot of students (yours truly guilty herself) ignore Maths or leave it for later, a later which never comes.

Math is something that is very scoring and could fetch you at least 15 marks with the right kind of efforst! The key to Maths is practicing – a lot of CLAT’s Maths involves formulas and tricks which are mastered over time, and are pretty easy to grasp. Please get rid of the ”OMG MATHS SUCKS!!!” attitude, as one of my teachers would say, ”If you hate maths, how can it love you back?”

Some other things I would want you to remember would be to keep asking doubts and for that, you would probably need a mentor, preferably a senior already acquainted with this enigma called CLAT. I had contacted a few seniors on Facebook and they did help me out, but, I knew I couldn’t force them to devote their invaluable time to me. Hence, I  enrolled in the CLATGyan mentorship programme. I had Nipuna Varman, a second year at NALSAR, who not only was an inspiration to me, but also shared valuable advice. She once told me that she would take me out for a treat if I do make it to NALSAR. This was in April and gave me a much-needed motivation boost. I’m holding her to this promise.

Last but not the least, believe in yourself. Always remember that you are absolutely unique, just like everyone else. XD But on a serious note, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, how much you score in your mocks yada yada; what matters is the belief that you can actually crack CLAT, and that you will make it into a law school.

It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the Master of my Fate
I am the Captain of my Soul.

                   – William Ernest Henley

When I made that vision board, I promised myself that come what may, I will end up at NALSAR. And, that is a promise that I kept.

 I hope you do too.

All the very best! 🙂

Ridhi Shetty
AIR-105
CLAT 2017

 

 

 

21 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Riddhi

    Firstly congrats on securing such an astounding rank in CLAT 2017.Kudos!
    Secondly, Actually I was in a bit of fix regarding time distribution for CLAT and boards and would love to have your opinion regarding it.
    My initial stratagem revolves around providing top priority to boards prep(science student woes) while strengthening my GK (and browsing via career launcher material ) and then opt for something like a crash course for CLAT after boards.
    Do you think this will be sufficient for acing CLAT/AILET or shall I opt online test series like that of CLATgyan? I’d be honoured if you’ll provide your opinion regarding the aforementioned. If not then which topics do you think I should start preparing from now.

    Thanks a lot for reading and have a great day
    Ishan

    • Hey Ishan
      CLAT 2018 is quite far away,but that doesn’t mean you can’t devote 2 hours to CLAT prep daily!
      I was a science student too,and frankly studied only after the prelims,and defo don’t recommend you to do that,try and balance both,yes,it is hard,but a lot of people here have done exceptionally well in boards as well as CLAT,you might just join there league if you work hard enough 😀
      You should,as I said before,try and solve all the past year papers now itself,to get a hang of the questions that will come for 2018 paper.
      GK is something you do daily Iin the form of reading newspapers,referring to apps,etc.JUST DO IT hehe
      I was in the CL one year prg,so I am not sure how the crash course would wo’rk out,but defo would be way too exhaustive because ‘after boards’ time is when you solve mocks,do your gk etc etc
      Mock series are really important,but don’t overdo it with taking 6-8 mock series,thats just,,,,,InSanE{acc to me ofc}
      Try to do all subjects probly twice in a week,with GK and MATHS being daily and vocab being probably once two days ??whatever works for you.
      You have time,utilize it acche se 😀
      All the very best!
      ps- Ridhi*(pet peeve ;D)

  2. Seeing one of your own Clatgyan, it if definitely a special and a proud moment. One of the best advices from one of the top scorer. Great inspiration for aspirants.✌

  3. Hyy ridhi ..congratulations for the awesome AIR u secured …I m too ur batchmate bt unfortunately i dropper now ..i m preparing for clat 2018 n thats my first attempt to clat . Can u please suugest me whether it is MANDATORY to join any coaching to crack clat ??? Bcoz its almost october n i haven’t been to any coaching till now …So what will u suggest should i join a coaching or prepare on my own ??

  4. Heyy..I am in class 11 icse board..And I am taking arts..So according to u will studying in icse board make a difference for cracking clat as compared to cbse?..Coz I have been studying in cbse till class 10….

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