CLAT 2027 Marking Scheme: Negative Marking and Section Weightage

CLAT 2027 awards 1 mark for each correct answer and deducts 0.25 marks for every wrong answer, across a 120-question paper worth 120 marks in total.

The Consortium of National Law Universities (NLUs) conducts CLAT as the gateway to undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes at 24 NLUs. The 2027 paper is expected to follow the same pattern established in recent years: comprehension-based passages across five sections with a uniform penalty for incorrect responses. Knowing the exact marking rules helps you build an attempt strategy around accuracy rather than sheer question count.

• Total marks: 120 (1 mark × 120 questions)
• Negative marking: 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer
• No marks deducted for unattempted questions
• Legal Reasoning carries the highest weightage at approximately 29–33% of the paper
• Quantitative Techniques has the lowest weightage at approximately 8–12%
• All questions are passage-based MCQs — no standalone or direct-fact questions

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CLAT 2027 Marking Scheme at a Glance

The Consortium of NLUs sets the CLAT paper at 120 marks. Every question carries equal value regardless of the section it belongs to. The table below captures the complete marking structure expected for CLAT 2027, based on the pattern followed in CLAT 2025 and 2026.

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Section-Wise Weightage and Question Distribution

CLAT 2027 is divided into five sections. Legal Reasoning carries the maximum weightage and is therefore the section where accuracy matters most for your overall score. The Consortium may vary question count slightly between sections, but the total always remains 120.

The weightage ranges above are based on CLAT 2025 and 2026 papers. Legal Reasoning alone accounts for roughly one-third of your total score, making it the highest-priority section for preparation and time management during the exam.

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How Negative Marking Works in CLAT 2027

CLAT applies a uniform 0.25-mark penalty for every incorrect answer. This rule applies across all five sections with no exception — there is no section that is penalty-free.

• Marking a wrong option costs you 1.25 marks in effect — you lose the +1 you could have gained plus pay the 0.25 penalty.
• Leaving a question blank costs 0 marks — there is no deduction for unattempted questions.
• For every 4 wrong answers, you lose the equivalent of one correct answer (4 × 0.25 = 1 mark).
• The break-even probability for guessing is 1 in 5 (20%). Since CLAT has 4 options, random guessing gives a 25% chance of being correct, which is above the break-even threshold — but the gains are marginal (about 0.06 marks per blind guess).
• The real advantage comes from eliminating options. Ruling out even one wrong option raises your correct-guess probability to 1 in 3, more than doubling the expected gain per attempted question.

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How to Calculate Your CLAT 2027 Score

Use the formula below to calculate your raw score after mock tests or the actual exam.

Raw Score = (Correct Answers × 1) − (Wrong Answers × 0.25)

The table below shows score outcomes for different attempt-accuracy combinations out of 120 questions.

These figures illustrate a crucial point: a student who attempts 90 questions with 85 correct outscores one who attempts all 100 questions but gets 20 wrong. In CLAT 2027, accuracy in selection matters more than maximising attempt count.

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Tips to Handle Negative Marking in CLAT 2027

The 0.25-mark penalty rewards precision. The following section-specific tactics can help protect and grow your score.

• Legal Reasoning (35–39 questions): Read the given legal principle before reading the facts. Many wrong answers come from applying a principle that was not stated in the passage. One misread here costs 1.25 marks.
• Current Affairs and General Knowledge (28–32 questions): These are passage-based and test comprehension of recent events. Avoid relying purely on memorised facts — the answer must follow the passage. Prepare with monthly current affairs from July 2025 onwards.
• English Language (22–26 questions): Inference and tone-based questions are common traps. Eliminate options that use absolute language such as "always" or "never" first before selecting.
• Logical Reasoning (21–25 questions): Attempt only when the argument structure is clear after a single read. Skip and return to ambiguous argument chains rather than spending excess time.
• Quantitative Techniques (10–14 questions): These carry the fewest marks but are highly scorable with Class 10-level arithmetic and data interpretation practice. Securing full or near-full marks here without incurring penalties is a reliable score booster.
• General rule: Attempt Legal Reasoning and Current Affairs first since they together constitute around 55% of the paper. Lock in those marks before moving to the smaller sections.
• Use elimination actively: Ruling out two options before guessing raises your expected score per question from 0.06 marks (4-option random) to 0.375 marks (2-option toss), a 6x improvement.