CLAT, AILET, or a State Law CET: A First-Timer's Guide to Law Entrances
CLAT gets most of the attention because it is the single gateway to the National Law Universities, but it is not the only law entrance worth preparing for, and it is not even the one with the most Legal Reasoning questions on this list. If you are applying to more than one law school, which most serious candidates do, the section weightings below decide how you should split your prep time, not just your target score.
- AILET weights Logical Reasoning far more heavily than Legal Reasoning, the opposite emphasis from what most first-time candidates expect.
- SLAT has no negative marking at all, unlike CLAT, AILET, and both MH CET Law variants, all of which deduct 0.25 marks per wrong answer.
- The Maharashtra 5-Year and 3-Year LLB CETs are structured differently from each other, not just shorter or longer versions of the same paper.
- General Knowledge and Current Affairs is a meaningful chunk of every exam in this group except SLAT, and it is the one section none of these mock tests can responsibly cover.
How the major law entrances compare
| Exam | Total questions | Duration | Marking | Legal Reasoning share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLAT UG | 120 | 2 hours | +1/-0.25 | 30 of 120 questions |
| AILET UG | 150 | 2 hours | +1/-0.25 | 70 of 150 are Logical Reasoning, not Legal |
| SLAT | 60 | 60 min | +1, no negative | 12 of 60 questions |
| MH CET Law (5-Year LLB) | 120 | 2 hours | +1, no negative | 32 of 120 questions |
| MH CET Law (3-Year LLB) | 120 | 2 hours | +1, no negative | 24 of 120 questions |
CLAT: five sections, and Legal Reasoning is only a quarter of it
CLAT UG splits 120 questions across five sections: English Language (24), Current Affairs and General Knowledge (28), Legal Reasoning (30), Logical Reasoning (26), and Quantitative Techniques (12). Legal Reasoning is the single largest section but still only a quarter of the paper, which surprises candidates who expect a law entrance to be mostly about law. Reading comprehension speed across all five sections, not just legal-passage familiarity, is what actually separates strong CLAT scores from average ones.
AILET: more Logical Reasoning than Legal Reasoning, by a wide margin
AILET UG runs 150 questions in the same 2 hours as CLAT but structures them very differently: English Language (50), Logical Reasoning (70), and Current Affairs and General Knowledge (30). Logical Reasoning alone is nearly half the paper, almost twice the weight of English and far more than Legal Reasoning gets on CLAT. A candidate who prepared heavily for CLAT's legal-passage-heavy format can be caught off guard by how reasoning-dominant AILET actually is.
AILET weights Logical Reasoning at nearly half the paper, almost twice what English gets and far more than Legal Reasoning receives on CLAT.
SLAT: the only one with no negative marking
SLAT splits 60 questions evenly across five sections of 12 each: Logical Reasoning, Legal Reasoning, Analytical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and General Knowledge, and it is the only exam in this group with no negative marking at all. That changes the guessing calculus completely compared to CLAT or AILET: on SLAT, an unanswered question and a wrong guess cost exactly the same, nothing, so leaving a question blank has no advantage over a genuine attempt.
The two Maharashtra CET variants are not just longer and shorter versions of each other
MH CET Law for the 5-Year LLB weights Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning (32 questions) and Logical and Analytical Reasoning (32 questions) as its two largest sections, with General Knowledge and Current Affairs (24), English (24), and a small 8-question Mathematics Aptitude section rounding it out. The 3-Year LLB variant, for candidates who already hold a graduate degree, drops Mathematics Aptitude entirely and instead makes English the largest section at 40 questions, with General Knowledge and Current Affairs at 32. Preparing for one does not fully prepare you for the other.
General Knowledge and Current Affairs is not covered in any of this site's mock tests for these exams, since that content needs continuous verification against real news events rather than a one-time fact check, and getting it wrong would do more harm than leaving it out. Preparing General Awareness without drowning in current affairs covers how to build that section on your own alongside the law exams directory for practice on everything that is covered here.
Frequently asked questions
Which law entrance has the most Legal Reasoning questions?
By raw count, MH CET Law (5-Year LLB) has 32 Legal Reasoning questions, the most of any exam in this group. By share of the total paper, CLAT UG comes closest, with Legal Reasoning making up a quarter of its 120 questions.
Is AILET mostly about legal knowledge like CLAT?
No. AILET UG weights Logical Reasoning far more heavily, 70 of its 150 questions, compared to Legal Reasoning's share on CLAT. English Language and Current Affairs and General Knowledge make up the rest of the paper.
Does SLAT have negative marking like CLAT?
No. SLAT has no negative marking at all, unlike CLAT, AILET, and both Maharashtra CET Law variants, which all deduct 0.25 marks per wrong answer.
Should I prepare the same way for the 5-Year and 3-Year Maharashtra Law CETs?
Not entirely. The 5-Year LLB CET includes an 8-question Mathematics Aptitude section that the 3-Year LLB CET drops entirely, and the 3-Year variant weights English and General Knowledge and Current Affairs more heavily instead.