What Is the CLAT Test? Full Form, Meaning and 2027 Pattern

If you want to become a lawyer in India, the CLAT test is usually the first real milestone. CLAT stands for Common Law Admission Test. It is a single, national-level entrance exam that decides admission to the country's National Law Universities (NLUs), the law schools most students think of when they picture the top of the profession. This guide answers what the CLAT exam is, what its full form means, what the test actually measures, who it is for, and which NLUs accept your score, using the latest CLAT 2027 details published by the Consortium of NLUs.

What is the CLAT exam?

The CLAT exam is a national-level law entrance test for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes at India's National Law Universities. It is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, a body made up of the participating NLUs that sets the paper, releases the result, and runs counselling each year.

At the undergraduate level, CLAT is the gateway to the five-year integrated law degree, courses such as BA LLB, BBA LLB, BCom LLB and BSc LLB. At the postgraduate level, it is the entry route to the one-year LLM. A strong CLAT score is what separates a seat at a top NLU from a long wait, which is why focused preparation with Law Prep Tutorial Delhi NCR matters from Class 11 onwards. Our CLAT and AILET programs and past results and toppers show what a structured approach can do.

What is the full form of CLAT?

The full form of CLAT is Common Law Admission Test. The word "common" points to what makes it useful: one shared exam accepted by many law universities, so a candidate sits a single test instead of a separate paper for every college.

You will sometimes see it typed as "c l a t full form" or misspelled as "calt". These all refer to the same exam, the Common Law Admission Test. In Hindi it is often searched as "CLAT kya hai", answered in full lower down this page.

What is CLAT for, and why is it conducted?

CLAT is conducted to select students for law degrees at the National Law Universities through one merit list, rather than each university running its own test. Just as engineering aspirants take JEE for the IITs, law aspirants take CLAT for the NLUs. Your rank in the merged CLAT score decides which universities and programmes you can choose during counselling.

So the exam serves two groups: school students who want to start a law degree right after Class 12 (CLAT UG), and law graduates who want to pursue an LLM (CLAT PG).

What does the CLAT test actually test?

The CLAT UG test measures reading, reasoning and aptitude through comprehension passages, not rote memorisation of law. Every question is tied to a passage or a set of information, and the legal principles you need are given inside the passage, so the exam rewards clear thinking and speed over prior legal knowledge.

The CLAT 2027 UG paper has five sections:

The Consortium publishes these as approximate ranges rather than fixed counts, so treat them as a preparation guide. There is no sectional cut-off, which means a strong section can offset a weaker one across the single score out of 120.

CLAT 2027 exam at a glance

The question count was reduced from 150 to 120 starting with CLAT 2024 and remains 120 for CLAT 2027, which gives you one minute per question on average.

Is CLAT for undergraduate or postgraduate law?

CLAT is held at both levels. CLAT UG is for students who have completed or are appearing in Class 12 and want to join a five-year integrated LLB. CLAT PG is for law graduates seeking admission to an LLM.

Both papers are offline and comprehension-based. The UG eligibility is 45 percent in Class 12 for the General, OBC and EWS categories and 40 percent for SC, ST and PwD candidates, and there is no upper age limit, so students still writing their board exams can apply provisionally. If you are still in Class 11, a two-year foundation programme gives you the most runway to build reading speed and reasoning before the exam.

How many NLUs accept CLAT?

This is where most guides disagree. You will see the figure quoted as 22, 24, 26 or 27 across different websites, and the reason is simple: some count only single-campus universities, some count campuses separately, some count Consortium members rather than the current year's participating list, and older pages were never updated. The number that matters for your application is the live participating list on the Consortium site for the year you are applying. As of the CLAT 2027 list, that is 26 universities across 27 campus entries.

National Law Universities participating in CLAT 2027:

At the postgraduate level, the LLM score is accepted by a smaller set of these NLUs. Beyond the NLUs, several private universities and government law colleges also use CLAT scores, though the NLUs remain the reason most students sit the exam.

Who conducts CLAT and when is it held?

CLAT is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, headquartered in Bengaluru, which organises the exam, releases the result, and coordinates counselling. CLAT 2027 is scheduled for 6 December 2026, with the registration window open from 3 August 2026 to 31 October 2026 on the official Consortium website. Application dates and the detailed CLAT syllabus deserve their own pages, so plan to read those alongside this overview.

CLAT kya hai? (Hindi)

CLAT का पूरा नाम Common Law Admission Test है। यह भारत की राष्ट्रीय स्तर की लॉ एंट्रेंस परीक्षा है, जिसे Consortium of National Law Universities द्वारा आयोजित किया जाता है।

इस परीक्षा में सफल होने पर विद्यार्थियों को देश की National Law Universities में 5 वर्षीय integrated LLB और LLM पाठ्यक्रमों में प्रवेश मिलता है। CLAT 2027 की परीक्षा 6 दिसंबर 2026 को होगी, और इसमें 2 घंटे में 120 प्रश्न पूछे जाते हैं।

CLAT versus other law entrance exams

CLAT is the largest law entrance exam, but it is not the only one. This is how it compares with the main alternatives at a glance:

If your target is an NLU other than NLU Delhi, CLAT is the exam that matters most. Many serious aspirants prepare for CLAT and AILET together, which is why Law Prep Tutorial Delhi NCR runs both tracks from its Hauz Khas, GTB Nagar, Noida and Gurugram centres.