CLAT 2027 Exam Day Checklist: What to Carry, Timing and Strategy (6 December 2026)

CLAT 2027, for both UG and PG, will be held on Sunday 6 December 2026 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, as fixed by the Consortium of National Law Universities in its press release of 22 July 2026. Applications close on 31 October 2026. The Consortium has said there is no change in the syllabus or pattern this year. This checklist covers everything you need for the day itself, so that nothing outside the paper costs you marks.

Before you go: dates to keep

If you have not submitted your application, do it now. The admit card date has not been officially notified; it has usually come out around two weeks before the exam.

What to carry

• Printed admit card (check the photo, name, centre and reporting time the day you download it)
• Original photo ID
• Pens as specified on the admit card
• Anything else the admit card specifically permits, such as a transparent water bottle, and nothing it does not

Leave at home

• Phone, smart watch, earphones, calculator
• Books, notes, loose paper
• Bags you cannot leave safely outside

The admit card instructions are the final word. Read them twice, once when you download and once the night before.

Timing on the day

• Reach the centre well before the reporting time printed on your admit card. Afternoon traffic in most cities is unpredictable on a Sunday.
• Visit or map the centre a few days earlier so you know the gate and the route.
• Eat a proper lunch, not a heavy one. The paper ends at 4 pm.

The 120-minute plan (CLAT UG)

The UG paper has 120 questions of one mark each across five passage-based sections, with 0.25 deducted for each wrong answer.

Negative marking: the working rule

With four options and minus 0.25 for a wrong answer, a completely blind guess is worth only about +0.06 marks on average, close to nothing. Once you can rule out one option, guessing works in your favour; after ruling out two, it clearly does. So: never guess blind, but do not leave questions you can narrow down.

CLAT PG on the day

CLAT PG runs in the same 2 pm to 4 pm slot and is built around reading passages from judgments and legal texts. Two things matter most on the day: do not get stuck on a long passage early, and keep a fixed time budget per passage that you have tested in mocks. Read the questions before the passage when a passage is long; they tell you what to look for.

Mistakes that cost marks on the day

• Changing your section order on the day. Stick to the order you have practised.
• Bubbling answers in batches at the end and running out of time. Bubble after each passage.
• Spending more than eight to ten minutes on one passage.
• Guessing blind on many questions to “cover” the paper.
• Arriving late because the centre was hard to find.

Last week before CLAT

• Sit two or three full mocks at 2 pm, the real exam time, so your concentration peaks when it needs to.
• Revise current affairs from your notes; do not start new sources.
• Review only your mistakes from earlier mocks.

Take a full timed mock free

The best preparation for exam day is a rehearsal. Lexfolio’s free timed mocks follow the real pattern, 120 questions in 120 minutes, and show your score and an explanation for every question the moment you submit: CLAT 2027 (UG) free mock and CLAT PG 2027 free mock. For a full plan to the exam, read CLAT 2027 last 50 days strategy and, for PG, CLAT PG last 50 days strategy.

Sources

• Consortium of National Law Universities, Press Release on CLAT 2027, 22 July 2026
• Consortium of NLUs, announcement that the CLAT 2027 syllabus and pattern are unchanged

Last checked: 24 October 2026.