CLAT UG exam pattern is the structure of the paper: how many questions, how long, what sections, and how marks are given or taken away. The most recent CLAT, held 7 December 2025, is over; the live paper is CLAT 2027 on 6 December 2026, which uses 120 passage based MCQs in 2 hours.

If you are searching for the CLAT UG 2026 exam pattern details, you are looking for the rules of the paper before you write a single mock test. CLAT is the national entrance test for the five year LLB and LLM programmes in India's 24 National Law Universities. It is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, and about 75,000 students compete for roughly 3,700 seats each year. The pattern tells you what the paper asks, how long you have, and how wrong answers affect your score. Those three facts should shape your study plan from the first week.

CLAT UG 2026 exam pattern details: what the structure means in plain words

An exam pattern is the set of fixed rules that every candidate faces on the day. For CLAT, those rules cover the mode of the exam, its duration, the number of questions, the sections, and the marking scheme. Nothing in this list changes from one student to another. Because the rules are fixed, you can plan around them. Readers who want more detail can start with our page on What Is AILET Exam? Full Form, Pattern & 2027 Dates | Clat Coaching.

The pattern matters because it decides how you spend your time. A student who knows the paper has 120 questions and two hours can set a pace for each section before the exam. A student who does not know the pattern often spends too long on a hard passage in the first half and rushes the rest. Knowing the structure also helps you decide which questions to attempt and which to leave. A good next step is our page on AILET Exam Full Form, Eligibility, Pattern and Syllabus | Clat Coaching.

Which year's paper you are preparing for

CLAT is named after the admission year, not the year the exam is written. So the test held in December 2025 is CLAT 2026. That paper was held on Sunday, 7 December 2025, from 2 PM to 4 PM, in offline pen and paper mode. It is over, and its results have already been declared.

The paper you will sit next is CLAT 2027, scheduled for Sunday, 6 December 2026, from 2 PM to 4 PM. Registration for CLAT 2027 closes on 31 October 2026 at 11:59 PM. If you read an article that describes the "2026 pattern" as if it were upcoming, check the date on it. Many older guides are out of date, and some still list exams that no longer run. For example, LSAT India was discontinued by LSAC from the 2025 cycle, but older guides still mention it. Before you plan mock tests, read the official notification for the current year. For a quick orientation to the exam itself, the What Is CLAT Exam, eligibility and pattern 2027 guide explains the basics in one place.

Question count, duration and the five sections explained

The CLAT UG paper has 120 multiple choice questions and runs for 2 hours. That works out to an average of about 1 minute per question. Averages can mislead, though, because passage based questions take longer than a single fact question. A practical way to use the average is to set checkpoints. For example, if you aim to finish 90 questions in 90 minutes, you will have 30 minutes left for the last 30 questions. Practise this split in every full length mock so the timing feels normal on exam day.

The paper is divided into five sections, but all 120 questions feed one total score out of 120. Your sections are not scored separately into different results. This means a weak section can be offset by a strong one, but only up to a point. Leaving a whole section untouched usually costs more than the marks you would have lost by guessing carefully. The section names, and how many questions each one carries, are set out in the CLAT 2027 pattern breakdown and duration notes, which is the right place to check before you build a timetable.

The mode is offline, using pen and paper, as the CLAT 2026 paper was. If your practice has been entirely on a screen, add a few paper mocks in the last two months. Writing answers by hand, turning pages and keeping track of time on a printed booklet feel different, and students who skip this step often lose time in the first few minutes of the real paper.

Marking scheme with a worked example

The marking rule is simple. Each correct answer gives plus 1 mark. Each wrong answer loses 0.25 marks. An unattempted question scores zero. The rule is the same for every question, so you need to know how it behaves in practice. Readers who want more detail can start with our page on CLAT Coaching Delhi.

Take a student who answers 100 questions and gets 80 right and 20 wrong. The 80 correct answers give 80 marks. The 20 wrong answers cost 20 multiplied by 0.25, which is 5 marks. The final score is 80 minus 5, which is 75 marks. The 20 wrong answers did not cost 20 marks. They cost 5 marks, but they still reduced the total.

This creates a clear trade-off. If you can rule out two options and guess between the remaining two, a guess has a 50 per cent chance of gaining 1 mark and a 50 per cent chance of losing 0.25 marks. Over many such guesses, that can help. If you only half understand a question and have no elimination logic, a guess is much closer to a coin toss that costs you more than it gains. Build a rule for yourself in mocks, such as attempting a question only when you can eliminate at least two options. Then stick to that rule in the real exam.

Who this pattern guide is for, and who it is not for

This guide is written for Class 12 students and parents who are planning a law degree through CLAT, and for readers who are comparing CLAT with AILET before they choose a preparation path. It explains the structure of the paper, the marking, and the timing, so that you can plan your study hours. Readers who want more detail can start with our page on AILET 2027 Exam Pattern, Marking Scheme & Sections | Clat Coaching.