-The best think about legal knowledge or legal GK is it is not something totally alien. Constitution of India, current affairs deal ing with laws, policies, and governance, international organisations, etc. - all of these are areas which you have covered to some extent at least, and now you only have to cover them in totality.

- What you learnt in legal reasoning - the concepts - do not ignore them, for the examiners would be asking you knowledge-based ques tions from those areas.

-It is essential for you to read, memorise, assimilate, and at the same time, keep on testing yourself regu larly Otherwise, you'll just go on labouring, without being aware of the areas where more concentration and effort are required.

-You must go through the past years' papers with a fine toothed comb. If you do not have an excellent idea about what you are up against, then the entire plan stands a risk of going haywire.

Subject specific tips LEGAL APTITUDE - 45 Marks Pay more attention to the Constitution of India, and the events happening around you.

Important areas for the Constitution: Judiciary - Elections - Parliament Current affairs dealing with law: In the domestic sector , Concentrate on all the hap penings in the field of ter rorism and the new laws to tackle it. Closely follow the legal issues associated with the Satyam scandal.

-One good way would be to look at all the commissions and committees set up, and the latest status regarding their functioning.

International sector: Wars and human rights, and environment - these are the crucial topics.

-The measures taken to curb international terrorism are also important.

English - 40 Marks Use of the English lan guage as a Skill is tested for CLAT Aspirants.

Knowledge in the basics of grammar; idioms & phras es is usually tested year in and year out.

-The traditionally important areas would predominate especially vocabulary and para-jumbles.

-The vocabulary skills of a student can be tested through a number of means, especially sentence correction and antonyms & synonyms.

-Reading comprehension is very vital for students, par ticularly inference-based questions.

Logical reasoning - 45 Marks  Logical section has two parts: Analytical and crit ical reasoning Analytical reasoning will be straightforward, and simple. Areas of focus are a) Order sequence, b) Linking, c) Group selection.

-Areas to be focus on are:

a) Syllogism & logical con sistency, b) Assumptions & implic it Statements c) Statements & conclu sions d) Strengthening/ weak ening arguments .Since legal reasoning is no longer going to be there, it is a safe bet to expect the examiners to test you on your analytical skills to a larger extent. After all, what is a lawyer without having superb and razor sharp logical and analyti cal skills.Time management is very critical to crack this section.

General Knowledge - 50 Marks GK is broadly divided into current & static GK. Current affairs are likely to hog the limelight.

-Emphasis would be on global economics and finance-related issues- like the recession in the US, the causes, the G20 and G8 sum mits, roles of the IMF and the World Bank,etc.

- WTO, especially in the light of the ongoing Doha round of talks, would also be important.

-However, one should not ignore Static GK areas like history (focus on the Freedom Movement), geog raphy, sports, entertain ment (Oscars) and science.

You expect around 15 to 20 questions from this area.

Mathematics - 20 Marks Just concentrate on the basics of what you learnt in arithmetic in classes IX and X.

CLAT usually checks the aspirants on the following topics:

a) Averages b) Percentages c) Ratio & proportion d) Profit, loss & discount e) Simple interest & com pound interest f) Time, distance speed Remember, the standard is very elementary and you DO , NOT have to be a genius in Mathematics to do well here.¦ The author is National Marketing Head, LST, Career Launcher .

Exam time  First goal is to score as many marks as possible - avoid selec tive-study, because the difference of 2-3 marks has the potential of sending your rank down by 30.

-Do not ignore any section - all are important, and remember; you can easily ace all of them. Golden Rule in CLAT is to attempt all questions because there is no negative marking.

-Start with the section you are most comfortable with, and try to ace all the answers at the first go.

-Stay focused, and do not get unnerved by some questions for which you don't have the answers.

-It is better to spend at least 10 minutes in reading the paper before you start. Do remember - `more haste, less speed!'