CLAT is the only LAW entrance exam through which admissions into coveted national law universities takes place. This time CLAT 2017 was organized by Chanakya Law University Patna and they have made a mockery of the whole admission procedure. The fate of at least 2175 prospective seat holders vying for admissions into 18 national law schools hangs in balance.
The critics are saying that there were more than 15 errors and the committee has already accepted 9 mistakes. The committee has scrapped four questions and revised three answers.
The following questions were erroneous:
The first error was where there were two possible correct answers. Now the students had two options. The first option is that tick any of the correct answers and the other option is skip the question because it is erroneous. Both options sound ok but what happens is that those who marked either of the correct answers gain one mark and those who do not answer get a zero mark for the question. This makes that one mark a matter of luck and not a matter of skill which is unfair especially since ranks change with every quarter and half of a mark.
A similar ambiguity was found in another question where again two options were both correct answers. The solution that was suggested was that one mark be awarded to those who picked any correct answer but once again the question is what happens to those who skipped the question because they figured that there was a discrepancy in the question.
Another question which was wrong was the following:
Although this question was wrong but justice was done and the question was scrapped as a whole. This means that the question will have no overall effect on the marking. But the fact still remains that the exam is time bound and the time spent in figuring out that the question is wrong was precious time was wasted. The time that was spent in trying to solve the question would have negatively impacted the psyche of the aspirants.
There was yet another problem and the following question was scrapped as a whole because it had an error.
This question would make no effect on the overall marks of the aspirant.
Another question which was scrapped was the following:
This question would have no effect on the marking system because it was scrapped.
The following was the last question that was ignored because it had an inherent error.
The unfortunate part is that not just these six questions were erroneous but the answers of another three questions were wrongly marked even in the official answer key. Those who were earlier given plus one mark for the answer which has now been declared wrong will now have 1.25 marks deducted from their score and those who had earlier given the correct answer will have 1.25 mark added to their score. The following were the correct answers according to the provisional answer key which were actually wrong.
The correct answers of the above questions were the following
The aspirants are outraged and there is a lobby of students who are demanding a re-test. Some are saying that there were questions which were out of the syllabus and that the exam level was higher than what it usually expected for CLAT.
The NGO IDIA is saying that the only way forward is that colleges do not carry out the tests and the duty to hold the CLAT exam be transferred to a permanent body established with this sole purpose. IDIA had earlier moved the SC in 2015 with a writ petition seeking the establishment of a body to conduct CLAT which will do it on behalf of the universities and would work in a scientific, competent and consistent manner.
