12-Month Exam-Year Plan for CLAT and AILET

A 12-month CLAT and AILET plan suits a Class 12 student starting roughly a year before the exam. You spend the first four months completing the syllabus, the next four converting it into timed accuracy, and the last four on weekly mocks and revision. Plan for 15 to 20 focused hours a week, 80 or more mocks with analysis, and daily current-affairs reading from week one.

Written & reviewed by Anand Sharma, Advocate · B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), NLIU Bhopal

Last updated: 12 August 2026

Timeline

10-12 months

Weekly load

15-20 focused hours

Best for

Class 12 students

Target Exam

CLAT & AILET

Duration

12 Months

Weekly Study

15-20 focused hours

Total Mocks

80+ Mocks

Pace & Intensity

Balanced

This plan is built for a Class 12 student with roughly one year to the exam. It assumes nothing about prior preparation, but it does assume you can protect 15 to 20 focused hours a week alongside school. If you are starting in Class 11, the 2-year foundation plan gives you a calmer runway. If you have already attempted CLAT or AILET once, the finisher plan skips the coverage phase and starts with diagnosis instead.

Month 1 here means roughly January of the year you sit the exam, so CLAT and AILET land around Month 11 to 12, and your board exams follow in February and March. That order works in your favour: the heaviest CLAT months finish before boards begin.

The four phases at a glance

One year is enough time, but only if the phases stay in order. You cover before you time yourself, and you test before you revise.

  • Phase 1, Cover. Complete the syllabus across all five sections and build the daily reading habit.
  • Phase 2, Apply. Timed sectionals, passage drills, and accuracy under negative marking.
  • Phase 3, Test. Weekly full mocks with a structured analysis loop after every attempt.
  • Phase 4, Peak. Revision, current-affairs consolidation, and exam-condition simulation.

Month-by-month preparation roadmap

Twelve months mapped to what you study when. Months marked for CLAT Quantitative Techniques are swapped into extra Logical Reasoning for students targeting AILET only.

Phase 1: Cover (Months 1 to 4)

Full syllabus coverage, plus the reading habit that carries four of the five sections.

MonthFocusMilestone
1Legal reasoning from first principles across tort, contract, and criminal liability. Start the 30-minute daily newspaper habit and baseline comprehension work.Diagnostic Mock
2Principle-to-fact application in legal reasoning. Logical reasoning begins with assumptions and inferences. First current-affairs compendium.Sectional Drill 1
3English comprehension, vocabulary in context, and passage grammar. Quantitative Techniques base for CLAT: ratios, percentages, averages, and data interpretation.Sectional Drill 2
4Constitutional basics, legal maxims, arguments and analogies in logic. Syllabus coverage closes here.Full Mock 1, Benchmark

Phase 2: Apply (Months 5 to 8)

Coverage becomes accuracy. Everything moves onto the clock, one section at a time.

MonthFocusMilestone
5Timed sectionals in every section. Legal reasoning advances to judgment-style framing and longer principle sets.Weekly sectionals
6Parajumbles, syllogisms, and the reasoning sets AILET weights heavily. Reading endurance on 450-word passages.Full Mocks 2 to 3
7Data-interpretation sets for CLAT. AILET-focused students spend this month on additional logical reasoning instead.Full Mocks 4 to 5
8Combined English and current-affairs timed sets, with explicit work on negative-marking discipline.Full Mocks 6 to 7

Phase 3: Test (Months 9 to 11)

Weekly mocks become the engine, and every mock turns into a short action plan.

MonthFocusMilestone
9Weekly full mocks with an error log, plus sectional repair aimed at exactly what the mock data exposes.Weekly mocks begin
10Speed and accuracy balance, and a time-per-section plan for a paper with no sectional limit. AILET mocks interleaved with CLAT mocks.Milestone Mock
11Pause heavy mocks for school pre-boards, then resume. Revise the last twelve months of the compendium and drill current-affairs questions.Pre-board buffer

Phase 4: Peak (Month 12)

The final stretch is revision and simulation, never new material.

WeeksFocusMilestone
Weeks 1 to 2Full syllabus revision with legal maxims and static GK consolidated. Simulation mocks in the real exam slot.Simulation Mocks
Week 3Exam-day plan: attempt order, negative-marking discipline, and the 60 to 70 percent confidence rule for guessing.Final Simulation
Week 4Light revision and mock analysis only. Protect sleep, confidence, and calm.Exam window

Sample weekly timetable

A Class 12 week lands near 16 to 18 hours and still fits around school and boards. A fixed daily slot you actually keep beats a heavy plan you abandon by March.

DayFocusTime
MondayNewspaper, then Legal Reasoning2 hr
TuesdayNewspaper, then Logical Reasoning2 hr
WednesdayNewspaper, then English passages2 hr
ThursdayNewspaper, then Quant for CLAT or extra logic for AILET2 hr
FridayNewspaper, then current-affairs compendium2 hr
SaturdayFull mock in the exam slot2 hr 30 min
SundayMock analysis, error log, and weak-area repair3 hr

Section strategy: the five CLAT sections

  • English Language. Comprehension-led passages of about 450 words. Build reading speed, inference, and vocabulary read in context rather than memorised in lists.
  • Current Affairs and GK. Passage-based questions on the last year of news. Daily reading plus the monthly compendium covers legal, national, and international developments.
  • Legal Reasoning. You apply a given principle to a set of facts. No prior legal knowledge is needed, so the skill is careful reading and clean application.
  • Logical Reasoning. Short passages testing arguments, assumptions, inferences, and analogies. AILET weights this section most, so it earns extra practice.
  • Quantitative Techniques. Class 10 level maths read from data sets and graphs: ratios, percentages, averages, and interpretation. Present in CLAT, absent in AILET.

Reading speed underpins four of the five sections, which is why the daily newspaper habit runs from Month 1 to exam day without a break.

CLAT vs AILET: where the two exams diverge

In a single year you cannot afford to prepare twice. You cover the shared core once, then add only what one exam tests and the other does not.

FeatureCLATAILET (NLU Delhi)
SectionsFiveThree
Total questions120150
Duration2 hours120 minutes
Section splitEnglish, Current Affairs and GK, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative TechniquesEnglish (50), Current Affairs and GK (30), Logical Reasoning (70)
Quantitative sectionYesNo
Heaviest weightBalanced across sectionsLogical Reasoning, at 70 of 150
Negative marking0.25 per wrong answer0.25 per wrong answer
Conducted byConsortium of NLUsNLU Delhi, separately

Mock cadence and the analysis loop

Mocks are staged rather than stacked. Sectionals come first so accuracy is fixed one area at a time, and full mocks arrive once your coverage holds under the clock. From Month 9 the cadence is weekly, and across the year the plan runs 80 or more mocks, each paired with analysis. The analysis is where the marks are made: every mock produces a short list of what went wrong, why, and what to drill next, so a score becomes an action plan rather than a number you collect.

When school and boards clash with the plan

In a 12-month plan the good news is sequencing: CLAT and AILET fall in December, and your board exams follow in February and March, so the two peaks do not overlap. The clash that does happen is school pre-boards in November, which is why Month 11 carries a buffer. During pre-boards you pause mock tests and keep only the 30-minute daily newspaper habit, then resume the cadence from exactly where you paused. A counsellor can move that buffer to match your school's calendar.

How to know you are on track

Each phase has a readiness check, so progress is something you can see rather than guess.

By the end ofYou should be able to
Phase 1, Month 4Attempt every section without gaps in coverage and finish a 450-word passage in about seven to eight minutes.
Phase 2, Month 8Clear timed sectionals with steady accuracy and complete a full paper inside the time limit.
Phase 3, Month 11Sit weekly full mocks and show a rising score trend, with your error log shrinking rather than repeating.
Phase 4, Month 12Hold a consistent target-band score in exam-condition mocks with disciplined attempt choices.

How Law Prep Tutorial Delhi NCR supports this plan

The plan is a map. The support is what keeps you on it. As the official Delhi branch of Law Prep Tutorial, LPT Delhi NCR backs this roadmap with 1310 or more NLU selections built over 23 or more years across four Delhi NCR centres.

  • Classes and centres. Learn at the Hauz Khas, GTB Nagar, Noida, and Gurugram centres, with online support and recorded lectures for revision and missed sessions.
  • Drills and mock analysis. Sectional drills, weekly full mocks, and mentor-led analysis that turns each test into a focused repair list, taught by faculty with 10 or more years of experience.
  • Current-affairs support. A monthly compendium and editorial analysis, so your revision is handled and your daily reading builds the comprehension speed CLAT rewards.
  • Counselling and parent visibility. Counselling checkpoints map the plan to your school schedule, and a parent dashboard tracks test scores, mock reports, and teacher feedback.

Fees, scholarship eligibility, centre fit, and batch schedule are confirmed transparently during counselling. A free scholarship test can earn a merit-based fee waiver of up to 100 percent, so cost is discussed with a clear path, not a guess.

What LPT Delhi students say

"The 1-year timetable changed how I approached mocks. By September negative marking was not scary any more, it was just maths." — LPT Delhi NCR student

"I was worried the CLAT year would cost me my boards. It did not. The plan front-loaded the syllabus so December was revision, and February was school." — LPT Delhi NCR student

"Every Sunday I knew exactly what I had got wrong and what to fix. That one habit moved my score more than any new book." — LPT Delhi NCR student

Still have questions about your routine?

Talk to a counsellor for a personalized check on how this plan fits your school schedule and current level.

Talk to a counsellor
Common Doubts

Questions about this roadmap

Understanding how this plan fits into your daily school life matters. Here are the questions students ask most before starting.

The plan is designed with a 'buffer week' built into the end of Phase 2. We recommend pausing mock tests during your school finals and strictly maintaining a 30-minute daily newspaper reading habit to stay in touch without adding stress.