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A Comprehensive Overview of The CLAT 2018 Disaster

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This article is a comprehensive overview of what happened in this year’s edition of the Common Law Admission Test. It talks about the problems and its implications.
Common Law Admission Test or CLAT is an entrance test written to get oneself admitted to one of the 19 National Law Schools in India based on the rank obtained.  This is the test which determines the fate of the current generation of lawyers and to see that it is mismanaged in every way possible way frightens every law aspirant preparing for this exam in the coming years.

This is year’s edition of the CLAT was organized by National University for Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi (NUALS).  CLAT has a rich history of having many discrepancies, but this year’s edition definitely took the cake for being the worst. The exam was scheduled to happen from 3 PM to 5 PM on 13th May 2018.

It was pretty clear and ominous before CLAT happened that it was going to be disastrous when the admit cards’ release was postponed due to “technical reasons”. Yes, we can write stories about the mismanagement and blatant negligence, but let’s look at the mishaps which could have been controlled.

Mistakes in the CLAT Question Paper and Answer Key

It has been a habit for CLAT question papers to have mistakes over the years. This year is no different. Though this year it did not break the record for having the most mistakes, it certainly took the cake for the most stupid mistakes. CLAT 2018 has a total of 9 errors.

There was a simple question whose answer claimed that the 8th Schedule of the Constitution had only 21 languages according to the answer key. There was a question in Logical Reasoning which had statements from which a number of answers were to be derived. These statements had the comprehension of a 3rd standard student. The Math section was ‘just difficult’. Many mentors question the abnormal difficulty and asking future lawyers irrelevant math questions. Math is vital to test the numerical ability of a candidate, but it does not mean it should be the most difficult part.

” The future of the country is at stake here. If things remain as they are and no re-test is announced, ‘Common Luck Admission Test’ would be a better expansion of ‘CLAT’.” – Anonymous Clat Aspirants

Issues in CLAT centers

Questions not appearing on time

A repetitive and significant complaint was the questions not appearing as soon as the test had supposedly “begun” i.e. at 3 PM. Students didn’t get to see their questions until 5-15 minutes after the test had begun. The most common solution offered by the authorities in various institutions was to continue taking the test and the candidates would be given extra time after the allotted time. But this solution didn’t work for the most part and was rather counter-productive.

Cheating

There are repeated cases of students cheating when they were relocated or when other technical glitches happened. An analogy could be drawn between stagnant water and mosquito breeding and CLAT exam centers and cheating. This was a widespread problem that could not be contained by the authorities. This happening in an entrance examination not only demands a retest but also an autonomous body to conduct CLAT.

Technical Glitches

Some of the glitches recorded were the computers being slow and unresponsive, the mice not registering clicks, questions getting skipped, the computers shutting down frequently and the questions being encrypted.

Poor Logistics 

In some centers, students were not allowed pen and paper whereas it is a requirement. Water was not given. Fans or ACs were not working due to electricity cuts. These are some of the grievances raised by students

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2018 question paper had nine questions that were either wrongly framed or with the wrong answers marked in the answer key, according to CLAT mentor Rajneesh Singh.

To understand the momentousness of these problems, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of CLAT aspirant. Imagine you have been preparing for over 2 years and all you have ever dreamed of is becoming a lawyer and when you sit down after months of preparation and hard work you don’t get the question on time. Imagine the plight of a child without his questions sees another with questions, the thought is frightening and revolting. There are a lot of testimonies by students who expressed their grievances but the most notable among all were the Youtube video being published. Many videos showcase the arguments between authorities and candidates. There is one which shows a candidate filming another taking the test past 7 PM. Whenever these problems were raised during the test, the in-charges, invigilators or authorities stood cluelessly.

Rose Varghese (NUALS, Kochi Vice-Chancellor) undermined the current situation and gave a statement which claimed that only 1.5% of the centers were affected and blamed the candidates for the “reacting”. On the contrary, a survey on Google forms revealed that most of the exam centers were affected. The only solution is having a re-test after creating an autonomous body to conduct CLAT.

 

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