CLAT PG 2027: LLM Entrance Pattern, Syllabus, Strategy
CLAT PG 2027, the one-year LLM entrance at the NLUs: eligibility, the 120-question pattern, the subject-wise syllabus, and how to prepare around a job.
Plan your next step
CLAT PG is a different exam from the CLAT most people mean. The undergraduate CLAT is an aptitude paper for school-leavers entering a five-year integrated law degree. CLAT PG is a law paper for people who already hold an LL.B. and want the one-year LLM at a National Law University. Same conducting body, same exam day, almost nothing else in common: no Legal Reasoning principle-application, no Quantitative Techniques, no General Knowledge section. It tests whether you actually know substantive law. This guide covers the CLAT PG 2027 pattern, eligibility, syllabus and a preparation approach that fits around a final-year LL.B. or a working law job.
For the undergraduate route, see CLAT Coaching in Coimbatore and the CLAT exam page. For the wider picture of T.I.M.E. Coimbatore's exam-prep offerings, see the coaching hub.
What is CLAT PG and who takes it?
CLAT PG is the entrance test for the one-year postgraduate LLM programme at the participating National Law Universities. The Consortium publishes the participating list for each cycle; check it before finalising preferences. It is administered by the Consortium of National Law Universities, the same body that runs the undergraduate paper, and both papers are sat on the same day.
The candidate profile is narrow and self-selecting. Almost everyone sitting CLAT PG falls into one of three groups: final-year LL.B. students taking it in the same year they graduate, recent law graduates who want a specialisation before entering practice, and working professionals in litigation, in-house counsel or judicial-services preparation who want the academic credential. That last group is the reason so much CLAT PG preparation happens online and in evenings.
When is CLAT PG 2027 and what is the format?
The CLAT 2027 exam, PG paper included, is on Sunday, 6 December 2026, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Eligible candidates in the PwD category get extended time, 2:00 PM to 4:40 PM.
The PG paper structure:
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Questions | 120 objective questions |
| Marks | 1 mark each, 120 marks total |
| Duration | 2 hours |
| Negative marking | 0.25 deducted per wrong answer |
| Mode | Offline, pen and paper, at a designated test centre |
Two things follow from that table that shape the whole preparation. First, 120 questions in 120 minutes is one minute per question with nothing spare, so recall speed matters as much as knowledge depth. Second, negative marking at 0.25 means a pure guess is negative-expectation across four options only if you can eliminate nothing; eliminate one option and guessing turns positive. Blind guessing is punished, informed guessing is not.
What does the CLAT PG syllabus cover?
The Consortium describes the syllabus in two parts: Constitutional Law, and other areas of law. The named subjects are:
- Constitutional Law
- Jurisprudence
- Administrative Law
- Law of Contract
- Torts
- Family Law
- Criminal Law
- Property Law
- Company Law
- Public International Law
- Tax Law
- Environmental Law
- Labour and Industrial Law
There is no separate aptitude, current-affairs or quantitative component. Every question comes from the mandatory subjects of an LL.B. programme, which is the single most useful fact about this exam: you have already been taught the entire syllabus. CLAT PG preparation is a revision and retrieval problem, not a learning-from-scratch problem, and treating it like the undergraduate paper is the most common way LL.B. graduates waste three months.
Constitutional Law is called out separately by the Consortium and is treated as the anchor subject in most preparation plans. The remaining twelve subjects are not equally weighted in practice, but the Consortium does not publish a weightage table, so any specific split you see quoted elsewhere is an inference from past papers rather than an official figure.
Who is eligible for CLAT PG 2027?
| Criterion | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Qualifying degree | LL.B. degree or an equivalent examination |
| Minimum marks (general) | 50% marks or equivalent grade |
| Minimum marks (SC / ST / PwD) | 45% marks or equivalent grade |
| Final-year candidates | Eligible; candidates appearing for the qualifying examination in 2027 may apply |
| Upper age limit | None |
Final-year candidates should note the condition attached: you apply on the strength of a result you do not yet have, and you must produce proof of passing at the time of admission or forfeit the seat. That is worth planning around if your university declares results late.
How should you prepare for CLAT PG?
Because the syllabus is your own LL.B. syllabus, the work is structured revision rather than fresh coverage. A workable shape for a candidate starting three to four months out:
Phase 1: Bare-act pass (weeks 1-4). Read the bare acts for the highest-yield statutes cold, without commentary: the Constitution, the contract statute, the criminal statutes, the company statute. CLAT PG asks provision-level questions, and provision-level questions are answered from the bare act, not from a textbook summary of it.
Phase 2: Subject rotation with recall testing (weeks 5-10). Take two subjects a week and test yourself on them rather than re-reading. Retrieval practice is what converts an LL.B. you passed two years ago into an exam you can sit in one minute per question. Constitutional Law recurs in every rotation because it is the anchor subject.
Phase 3: Landmark judgments and current legal developments (throughout). Constitutional and criminal questions frequently turn on leading cases. Maintain a running list of case names, the proposition each stands for, and the year, and revise it weekly rather than in a block at the end.
Phase 4: Full mocks under exam conditions (weeks 10 onward). Sit 120 questions in 120 minutes, at 2:00 PM, on paper. The point is not the score. The point is finding out where your one-minute-per-question budget breaks, and calibrating your own elimination threshold for the negative marking.
How is CLAT PG different from CLAT UG?
| CLAT UG | CLAT PG | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry to | 5-year integrated law degree | 1-year LLM |
| Who sits it | Class XII students | LL.B. holders and final-year LL.B. students |
| Tests | Aptitude: English, Current Affairs, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Techniques | Substantive law across the core LL.B. subjects |
| Prior law knowledge | Not required | The entire basis of the paper |
| Questions | 120 | 120 |
| Negative marking | 0.25 | 0.25 |
The two papers share a conducting body, a question count and a marking scheme, and almost nothing else. Preparation material written for the undergraduate paper is close to useless for the postgraduate one, which is a real trap because there is far more of it in circulation.
CLAT PG preparation at T.I.M.E. Coimbatore
T.I.M.E. Coimbatore's law-entrance track covers both CLAT routes: the five-year integrated undergraduate programmes and the postgraduate LLM. Because the CLAT PG cohort is largely final-year students and working professionals, the practical questions are usually about format and timing rather than syllabus. Contact the Coimbatore branch for current CLAT PG batch structure, schedule options that fit around a job or a final-year LL.B. timetable, and test-series details for the current cycle.
Related resources
- CLAT exam page
- CLAT coaching in Coimbatore
- CLAT last-month preparation and exam-day strategy
- Coaching hub
Frequently asked questions
Is CLAT PG the same exam as CLAT?
No. They are two separate papers sat on the same day under the same conducting body. CLAT UG is an aptitude paper for entry to the five-year integrated law degree; CLAT PG is a substantive-law paper for entry to the one-year LLM and requires an LL.B.
Can I take CLAT PG in my final year of LL.B.?
Yes. Candidates appearing for the qualifying examination in 2027 are eligible to apply. You must produce proof of having passed at the time of admission, so plan for the case where your university declares results late.
Is there an upper age limit for CLAT PG?
No. The Consortium states there is no upper age limit for candidates appearing for the PG programme, which is why the cohort includes practising advocates and in-house counsel some years out from their LL.B.
How much does negative marking actually cost on CLAT PG?
0.25 marks per wrong answer, against 1 mark for a correct one. Practically: if you can eliminate even one of the four options, attempting is worth it on expectation. If you can eliminate nothing, leave it. Calibrate that threshold in mocks rather than deciding it in the hall.
Does CLAT PG have a General Knowledge or current-affairs section?
No. There is no separate current-affairs, English or quantitative section. Every question comes from the core LL.B. subjects. Current legal developments still matter, but they matter as constitutional and criminal law questions, not as a general-awareness section.
How long does CLAT PG preparation take?
For a final-year LL.B. student whose subjects are still fresh, three to four focused months is a workable window. For a working professional several years past the degree, plan for six months, because the bare-act pass takes materially longer when the material is cold.
What can I do with an LLM from an NLU?
The common paths are academia and teaching positions, specialised practice in the LLM area (corporate, constitutional, international, environmental, tax), in-house counsel roles where a specialisation is valued, policy and think-tank work, and judicial-services preparation. It is a specialisation credential rather than a general practice qualification.