Why is self-preparation for CLAT not likely to be good enough?

August 6, 2020
Posted by: Team CP
Category: clat preparation

Let’s address the elephant in the room: is it absolutely necessary to take coaching classes to clear CLAT? The answer is no. Full disclosure: the author himself did not take any coaching classes to clear CLAT in 2012. It is most certainly possible to do well at law entrance exams without taking any coaching classes whatsoever.

Why do coaching classes exist, then? Does this coaching institute – CLAT Possible – have any meaning at all? These are questions that would naturally arise in a reader’s mind, and it is those questions that this series of articles addresses. This piece looks at the various pitfalls and deficiencies of self-preparation

Repeating the Caveat

Again, let’s begin with the caveat: it is possible that for some students, self-preparation is enough. This author was one of them. But these students begin with a huge advantage due to their basics of English, logic, general knowledge and math being exceptionally clear. A vast majority of law entrance examinees do not fall in this category. Why? Because there are things that self-preparation is not well-suited for.

Imbalanced Structure of Preparation

There is no structure to self-preparation. Students decide by themselves what they want to study, and what they don’t. As a result, it is likely that they spend more time on things that they enjoy and are good at, and less time on their weaknesses. This leads to an imbalanced preparation that can cause disasters in actual exams.

No Knowledge of Current Standing

There is no measuring standard against which self-preparing students can assess their position and preparation. Law entrances exams, for good or for bad, are akin to races. In races, it’s impossible to know how good one is running unless one knows where s/he stands compared to other racers. Knowing where one stands at all times is likely to prod students to up their game and perform better.

Preparation Materials

This author has a mantra: the quality of materials used for preparation is far more important than their quantity. This mantra helped him clear not only CLAT/AILET UG, but also his internal exams at NLU Delhi, CLAT/AILET PG and UGC-NET. A person who has weakly gone through 10 books each for each subject is most likely going to perform worse than the person who knows 1 book per subject like the back of her/his hand. A self-preparing student is more likely to use too much preparation material, and that is likely to be detrimental to preparation.

Conclusion?

A reader would now say that these deficiencies can be solved by enrolling in a correspondence course. The reader would be right, but with a big caveat. Correspondence courses may be better than self-preparation, but they are no match for joining actual classes (whether they be virtual classes or brick and mortar classes.)

The next piece would cover benefits of correspondence courses over self-preparation, but also look at some things that correspondence courses lack in.

[The author of the post is a graduate from National Law University, Delhi, and is currently mentoring students here at CLAT Possible. Feel free to write to us at help@clatpossible.com, and we’ll see how we can help you or your ward in going forward in their pursuit towards law as a career]