If you are a CLAT aspirant, you may have inevitably heard the sheer importance of taking and analyzing mocks. As confusing as this process may seem, typing the words ‘how to analyze a CLAT mock test’ into a search engine will immediately give you more than a hundred resources.
This article aims to give you a tried and tested, most effective way to analyze a mock.
The first question that most aspirants ask is when is the right time to start taking CLAT mock tests? The only correct answer to that question is that there isn’t. Often as students, we are so scared of the idea of failure that we refuse to try.
“What if we write a mock and score less than fifty?”
“What if I won’t clear CLAT?”
In between this constant self-interrogation, you spend months preparing, studying the same things a hundred times with absolutely no strategy.
Stop.
Remember that your mock score is not your CLAT score. Distance yourself from it. Whether you get a score of 100 or 20, it doesn’t matter, this isn’t your final score.
Once you have successfully overcome this hurdle; find a notebook or take your laptop and draw this table:
- MOCK No. ___:
- Taken on DD/MM/YY
- SUBJECT: English | Logical Reasoning | Quantitative Techniques | Legal Aptitude | General Knowledge
- SCORE
- NEGATIVE MARKING
- PERCENTILE
Be sure to keep track of your score as you progress. Every once in 5-6 mocks it is a good idea to convert this table into a graph and see how you mock score is doing. Are you seeing a quantum increase, are your scores stagnating, or are they staying consistent?
You want to achieve consistency. Scoring 55 in one CLAT mock test and then 110 in another mock, of the same difficulty is not a cause for celebration, consistency is key.
If you’re someone who struggles with time, add a ‘time taken per section’ column to your graph. It’s a good idea to start with mock every two weeks in the first few months of your preparation, then move on to one mock every week and then one every two or three days as you near closer to your exam.
Months 1- 4:
In these months you have the privilege to experiment, use it. Try starting with different sections, find a strategy that suits you. Use this time to learn how to think. How does the difficulty level of a mock affect your strategy? What does a lengthy comprehension mean to you? Spend this time introspecting and analysing.
Months 5-7:
Voila! You now have a strategy, implement it. See if it’s working for you and tweak it if you feel the need to. Spend more time in these months analysing your sections, perhaps a sports question in G.K is constantly throwing you off, or you just aren’t able to figure out that speed, distance time question.
Practice it! If you’re bad at it, do it again and again till that question becomes your best friend. Spend 2-3 hours analysing your mocks in this period, you will need it.
Months 8 and 9:
By the time you reach this phase, you should be done with 90% of your studying. Your mock scores should reach a level of consistency. How you analyse your mocks in these months is what ends up differentiating you from the rest.
With every CLAT mock test, you must aim to increase your score by 5 marks, 1 in each section. Use your analysis and your table to find a way. Analysing mocks in these months would have gotten easier, you should be taking roughly 1.5 – 2 hours per analysis.
Don’t just see the question, see all possible questions that may arise from it. Let’s take for example, I received a G.K set on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and I didn’t know the answer to “Who was the first Indian woman to win the Olympics?”, don’t just read the answer to that question.
Start reading about the Tokyo Olympics again, what other similar question could be asked? Are you prepared to answer it?
The last month:
In this month your only mantra is mock, analyse, repeat.
Don’t change your strategy unless something is going wrong. Watch instruction videos. Last year, Dr. Faizan Mustafa had mentioned in his video that a student would not be given time to fill the OMR sheet, students who watched it were far more mentally prepared than those who didn’t.
The last month will throw a lot of curve balls at you, don’t spend time complaining, always ask yourself which part of this situation is in my control and find yourself a solution.
Good luck!
For more strategies to ace the CLAT exam, click here.
Source: Lawctopus
