The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) has been in the news for the past few months, due to the sudden announcement introducing an age bar for students taking the CLAT. Students fought against it, gave their best, and were hoping to ace the entrance.
However, the law aspirants are now gearing up for yet another fight. In the recently held CLAT, students claim, there were questions that were framed incorrectly. The exam, held on May 14, had errors in the question paper as well as in the answer key. In fact, test-takers have claimed that a few questions, especially the ones in the mathematics section, were out of syllabus.
Errors reported
“CLAT 2017 left everyone flummoxed. The paper was full of errors, many questions that I attempted were marked unanswered, and the paper’s pattern was not of CLAT level. Erroneous questions wasted our time. One or two errors in the exam are acceptable but more than 15 errors clearly show carelessness of Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) and CLAT authorities,” says Shivrit Dhadwal, a test-taker from Punjab.
It was noted that either the questions were totally wrong, options had more than one answer, none of the options were correct, questions were out of syllabus, or questions were copied as they were along with errors from CLAT 1999.
Students spend at least two years preparing for this exam. Aspirants juggled their higher studies and entrance exams for two years, only to realise that they could not attempt many of the questions, due to the mistakes of the CLAT authorities.
CNLU, the CLAT committee this year, published the answer key on the evening of May 16; this proved the allegations of students. Examination experts and teachers agreed with the test takers after the release of the official answer key.
“CLAT 2017 has too many errors. The nature of errors suggest that paper setters have been extremely careless and irresponsible. There are at least 15 errors which cannot be denied,” says Rajneesh Singh, CLAT Mentor.
Students raised doubts within hours of the release of the answer key. Questions related to Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehensions or General Knowledge, all had errors. Students usually spend a few seconds on a question and move on to the next one to be able to attempt maximum number of questions. Due to the errors, students had to either spend more time or had to go back to questions which resulted in time loss.
“CLAT 2017 had irrelevant and vague questions in GK section. Errors in Reasoning questions got us stuck and wasting our time. There were errors in all sections which became speed breakers for us,” says Harshit Pareek, an aspirant from Rajasthan.
“We missed out on so many questions due to carelessness on the part of CNLU and CLAT committee. Approximately 16 question had errors and there were also technical glitches. Such errors in a national-level examination is clearly a mockery of our education system,” says Isha Tiwari, a student from Chhattisgarh.
An expert committee has been set up to consider the issues raised by the students and the experts. CLAT convenor Dr. A. Lakshminath assured students that the CLAT committee will take appropriate steps. However, students and experts are demanding a re-exam, instead of simple corrections.
“Only a re-exam can do full justice. For a better future, the CLAT core committee must take question selection seriously and set a permanent committee,” says Mr. Singh.
This is not the first time that errors have been spotted in the CLAT. Last year too, CLAT authorities had to face the heat when 135 out of 150 questions were allegedly copied from various public domains. “Even this time CLAT has proved what is wrong with our testing system. A permanent CLAT body with greater transparency in the exam is the need of the hour,” says Kush Kalra, advocate.
