CLAT Legal Reasoning — how to read a passage (the part no one teaches you)
A month of 1:1 coaching distilled into a reading pattern. Works for principle-fact, assertion-reason, and the weird one they threw in last year.
Every CLAT cohort arrives knowing the substance of Constitutional, Contract, and Torts. Very few arrive knowing how to read a passage under three-minute time pressure. Here's the method we teach.
Three passes, 90 seconds each
Not one careful read. Three fast reads, each with a different job.
Pass one — find the principle
The principle is almost always in the first or second paragraph. Underline it once. Do not try to understand the facts yet.
Pass two — map the facts to the principle
Now walk through the facts with the principle as the lens. Mark any fact that changes whether the principle applies. These are your decision points. Every question will hinge on one of them.
Pass three — predict the questions
Before looking at the options, predict what the question is most likely to ask. In 70% of passages, one of the five questions will be a direct principle-fact application; another will be an exception-based question. Expect them.
What to avoid
- Don't sub-vocalise. It halves your reading speed.
- Don't highlight sentences — underline only the principle and the decision-point facts.
- Don't answer out of order. The first two questions are usually comprehension anchors — get them right and the next three read easier.