We are in December 2014. CLAT exam is just 5 months
away. You have been preparing for the CLAT exam since the last one year or
more. Have you taken your first mock test? Abhyaas Law Prep(ALP) students took
their first mock test online last weekend. It was a very interesting
experience, and a very enriching one too.
At what stage of preparation should one attempt a mock
test? What do you achieve by attempting mock tests? As ALP students discovered
over the weekend, a mock test gives you an experience of what the actual CLAT
exam could be like. Right from booking a slot, reaching the test center and
taking a proctored test, it was a novel experience.
Some of the doubts that linger in the minds of
students are “The syllabus is not yet completed….”, “I do not have enough
practice”, ”Should I finish all my study material and classes before taking
tests?”. Well, there is no perfect time to start attempting mocks. Gaining
Conceptual Knowledge and Developing a test strategy are two separate aspects of
test preparation. Gaining conceptual knowledge can happen over a longer period.
But as you gain the conceptual knowledge, you should start focusing on
developing your strategy. It is high time you start experiencing how the CLAT
exam actually looks like.
As you finish the first mock test, you would have the
following learnings:
1) The time management would be all awry. Most of you
would have barely been able to finish reading all the questions, let alone solving
them. Some of you would have done exceedingly well in one or two sections, but
not even attempted some other sections. If you have faced these situations, do
not panic. It happens to most students on their first mock experience. So far,
you would have only solved questions at your own pace. That is what you do as
you master the concepts. However, in an exam, the focus is on maximizing your
efforts and time on questions that you can answer confidently. As you attempt
more mocks, you will figure out how to manage the given time, as ALP mentors
will help you define your strategy.
2) Of all the questions that you have attempted, maybe
only 50% are correct and the remaining are incorrect. As a result, you have
lost quite a few marks due to the negative marking, bringing your score down.
One important learning is that you need to attempt a question only if you are
confident of your answer. All through your education, you have been advised by
your parents and teachers to answer all questions. Never leave a question
unanswered. Sometimes, you are even asked to attempt more than the required
number (when there is choice), to be on the safe side. You now need to unlearn
that!! Attempting competitive exams, and that too, with negative marking, is a
completely different ballgame. You would have now realized that attempting more
questions is actually detrimental unless you are sure of the answers.
3) Attempting an online exam is not as bad as you
envisaged. Navigation, reading off a screen and solving on paper is not
actually that difficult. As I have mentioned in my earlier post on Online CLAT,
you are comfortable with technology and all mobile devices. So navigating
questions on a screen is a cake-walk. Solving the questions correctly is a
different aspect, but that can be mastered only with practice, which can be
done offline.
At the end of the first mock test, you would have got
a sense of the exam format, the challenges of time management and negative
marking. You now need to focus on completing your study material and building
your conceptual knowledge. The more adept you are at solving problems, time
management and negative marking will be less of a challenge. As you take more
mocks over the next few months, you will be able to define and refine your
strategy.
Gear up for the next mock test that will be conducted by Abhyaas Law Prep in the first week of January 2015!!
