CLAT vs. AILET: A Quick Comparing

Two significant milestones for all young law students are the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2022 and the AILET (All-India Law Entrance Test), centralized, national-level law entrance examinations for Law University admissions. Acing these examinations helps open multiple avenues for law aspirants, significantly improving their chances of admission into any of the 22 prestigious National Law Universities (NLUs) in India. 

As one would expect, these tests happen to be extremely grueling and competitive law entrance exams since a majority of the private and self-funded law schools in the country also consider these scores for any applicant's admission.

Students take the CLAT and AILET after their 12th grade to enter courses for undergraduate law degrees (BA LL. B) and postgraduate master's programs (LL.M) in law offered by various esteemed National Law Universities. Most of the significant public sector undertakings, including BHEL, Coal India, Oil India, and the Steel Authority of India, consider the CLAT and AILET Post Graduation results to recruit candidates for top paying legal positions in their companies. So, choosing the law entrance exam that best suits your skills and capabilities and scoring well is quintessential to initiating a fruitful career in the field of law.

While many applicants opt to appear for both these prestigious national-level law entrance exams, we've collated a concise and comprehensive guide to both these examinations with an in-depth comparison of their various aspects to make your selection process more cohesive.

What is AILET?

The All-India Law Entrance Test or AILET is conducted annually by the National Law University Delhi to refine the selection process for the admission of law students into their 5-year integrated BA LLB program. This university-level law entrance exam is usually attended by around 20,000 candidates and is conducted once a year. This law entrance examination helps students get admission in other such BA LLB courses provided by renowned Law Universities across India.

Aside from the LLM and BA LLB, NLU Delhi also offers a Ph.D. course in law through the AILET. The annual AILET LLM test also has a similar pattern. The master's degree course candidates are asked questions relating to the LLB graduation level legal subject matter that they are expected to have detailed and articulate knowledge of, including Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence Laws, etc.

The National University of Law Delhi has scheduled the AILET 2022 in an offline, written format. 

What is CLAT?

The Common Law Admission Test, also commonly known as CLAT, is conducted by the Consortium of National Law Universities, headed by NLSIU. It is another renowned national-level law entrance exam for the admission of candidates into the law course offered by the 22 National Law Universities and several top law colleges at both the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) levels.

CLAT 2022 is scheduled to be conducted in offline mode. Once the results have been announced, students can use their scores to apply for renowned 5-year LLB and LLM courses in the top NLUs of India.

You might be interested in How to apply for CLAT 2022?

POINT OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN AILET AND CLAT:

It should be noted that while many universities accept both the AILET and the CLAT scores for their admission processes, certain National Law Universities that are part of the NLU Consortium like the NLSIU Bangalore and the NALSAR only accept CLAT scores. Ensure that you check the specificities and admission criteria for the universities you aim to apply for to avoid any mistakes in the law entrance exam process.

THE ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR AILET AND CLAT:

To be eligible to apply for the AILET 2022, you should have passed Grade 12, or any equivalent examination, having secured at least 50% of the marks in the qualifying exam, from a recognized university or board. Applicants between the ages of 18 to 22 can apply for this examination. There is no limitation to the number of times you can appear for the AILET exam, provided you satisfy the latest eligibility criteria as set by the exam conducting body.

To be eligible to apply for the CLAT 2022, all aspiring candidates should have passed Grade 12 or any other equivalent examination, having secured a minimum of 45% aggregate of the marks in the qualifying exam from a recognized institution or board. The SC and ST category candidates should have scored a minimum of 40% of the marks or equivalent grades in their qualifying exam.

There is no age limit applicable to candidates interested in appearing for the CLAT. Applicants appearing for their qualifying examinations in March or April 2022 will also be eligible to appear for CLAT 2022, provided they submit proof of their educational qualifications during the CLAT admission and counseling process. Failing to do this within the period specified will lead to their admission getting canceled.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: AILET V/S CLAT:

When you decide to appear for exams like CLAT and AILET, you must know that you are competing with a big pool of candidates, and the pool of potential candidates is the only justification for its difficulty. 

The passing ratio of AILET is 1% according to some recent stats. Approximately 20,000 candidates overall appear annually for the AILET law entrance examination, competing to secure admission and a seat at the National University of Delhi out of the 173 seats available each academic year.

Whereas, the clearance ratio of CLAT is about 6%. Approximately 55,000 candidates appear annually for the CLAT law entrance examination, competing for an admission opportunity to secure one of the 3,283 seats available across 22 National Law Universities all over India.

So, which law entrance examination has a higher difficulty level?

In consideration, it can be surmised that the CLAT law entrance examination is more complex than the AILET. If we consider the total number of applicants per seat, the number of applicants for AILET is comparatively higher than the number of applicants for the CLAT. From this perspective, the AILET can be deemed the tougher of the two law entrance exams.

Here, one must note that the difficulty level of the CLAT law entrance examination paper is higher than the AILET, requiring much more preparation and revision. This is essentially due to the format of MCQs followed by the AILET question paper format. In contrast, the CLAT law entrance exam paper has an objective question format requiring practice in comprehensive passages, with difficult questions, especially in Legal Reasoning, based on core topics of law.

EXAM PATTERN OF AILET AND CLAT:

Let's explore the details of the official law entrance examination structure for AILET 2022 and CLAT 2022:

AILET 2022 Exam Pattern

AILET 2022 law entrance exam will be in an offline, written format, with 150 questions. These will be in the form of multiple-choice questions that the candidate has a total duration of 90 minutes to answer. A correct answer will be given one mark, while 0.25 marks will be deducted per incorrect answer. Negative marking is applicable.

CLAT 2022 Exam Pattern

The CLAT 2022 law entrance exam will also be in an offline, written format, with 150 questions in total. These will be objective-type questions, based on several comprehensive passages of 450 words in each section, that the candidate must answer within the total time duration of 120 minutes. A negative marking scheme is applicable, where every correct answer will be awarded one mark while students will lose 0.25 marks for every incorrect answer.

SYLLABUS FOR CLAT AND AILET:

An essential aspect of your selection process and preparation for these law entrance examinations is the syllabus you will need to learn and thoroughly revise in time for the test. Let's take a closer look into the syllabus structure of both these law entrance examinations.

CLAT 2022 Syllabus

The CLAT 2022 syllabus for an undergraduate BA LLB degree consists of the following subjects:

1. English Language
2. Current Affairs, including General Knowledge
3. Legal Reasoning
4. Logical Reasoning
5. Quantitative Techniques

For the postgraduate LLM degree course, the subjects forming the syllabus of the CLAT are as follows :

1. Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence and Administrative Law
2. Law of Contract, Torts, Family Law and Criminal Law
3. Property Law and Company Law
4. Public International Law, Tax Law
5. Environmental Law, Labour Law, and Industrial Law

AILET 2022 syllabus

The AILET 2022 syllabus for an undergraduate BA LLB degree consists of the following subjects:

1.  English, including fill-in-the-blank questions, comprehension passages, grammatical exercises like antonyms, synonyms, choosing the correct words, rearranging jumbled words and sentences, idioms, and phrases.
2. Elementary Mathematics includes algebra problems, profit and loss, average speed and distance, work, and time problems, Venn diagrams, permutation - combination, and overall numerical ability.
3. General Knowledge, including questions relating to civics, economics, history, geography, general sciences, and current affairs.
4. Legal Aptitude, including the study of law, problem-solving abilities, and research aptitude.
5. Reasoning, involving questions testing analytical and logical reasoning skills.

The subjects included in the syllabus for the AILET for a postgraduate LLM course are as follows:

1. Jurisprudence
2. Property Law
3. International Law
4. Criminal Law
5. Law of Torts
6. Law of Contracts
7. Family Law
8. Intellectual Property Law

COLLEGES THAT ACCEPT CLAT AND AILET SCORES:

To make the task of narrowing down your future academic options more effortless, we have listed out the various national universities and institutions of law participating in the AILET and CLAT.

The official law entrance exam for the National Law University of Delhi is the AILET, and numerous other colleges also refer to the applicant's AILET scores for admission purposes. It should be noted that while these other colleges do offer admission opportunities through the AILET law entrance examination, they also use the scores of other centralized law entrance exams for their admission process.

The CLAT score is useful to apply elsewhere, as this law entrance exam result is considered for admission into renowned law programs in multiple other law institutes across India. On the other hand, with a slightly more significant outreach, a candidate's CLAT law entrance exam score is considered for admission purposes by 22 National Law Universities all over the country. A few of these prestigious institutes are:

1. The Delhi Institute of Rural Development (DIRD) in Holambi, Delhi

2. The Galgotias University in Greater Noida

3. The Asian Law College in Noida

4. Amity University in Noida

5. The Alliance School of Law in Bengaluru

6. The Azim Premji University in Bengaluru

7. The Disha Law College in Raipur

8. The Geeta Institute of Law in Panipat

In conclusion, both the CLAT and the AILET law entrance exams are reputable and significant. Still, the higher difficulty level of the examination and broader scope of universities that accept the results of the CLAT for their admission procedures gives the CLAT law entrance examination precedence over the AILET.

Rest The Case hopes that this article was helpful in your research process, and we wish you the best with your preparations for these upcoming law entrance examinations. Head over to our website for more helpful articles and blogs relating to your academic career in the field of law.

Author: Jinal Vyas