How to prepare Law Admission Test (LAT 2023)
Are you preparing for Law Admission Test (LAT) and need clarification about your preparation? Then this article is for you. This article will comprehensively discuss how you should start your preparation. How to make your notes for Law Admission Test. Which books should you consult to score maximum in Law Admission Test?
The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) conducts Law Admission Test (LAT) from students interested in taking admission in LLB 5 Years or LLB shariah and Law from any public or private sector. Law Admission Test (LAT) is conducted under the order dated 6 March 2018 of the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan.
LAT stands for Law Admission Test. It is usually conducted three or four times a year. No exact schedule is provided for Law Admission Test by HEC on which date it is to be conducted as provided for NAT Conducted by NTS. A candidate must score 50% marks to clear Law Admission Test. Its syllabus is divided into two portions, i.e. Multiple Choice questions (MCQs) and a written portion.
Syllabus for LAT 2023
Subject | Marks |
English | 20 |
General Knowledge | 20 |
Pakistan Studies | 10 |
Urdu | 10 |
Islamic Studies | 10 |
Mathematics | 5 |
Essay and Personal Statement | 25 |
Syllabus Analysis
The test is meant to assess the candidate’s general knowledge about Pakistan, Islam, and in general, the whole world, along with his basic writing abilities. It is evident from the subjects of the Law Admission Test and past papers that the test is not very difficult but a little tricky. Those who want to score well to achieve admission in law schools must make a proper study plan and preparation strategy.
If we deeply analyse the syllabus of the law admission test, we will find out that by covering three sections, we mainly cover the 65% portion of the Law Admission Test. These three portions are English, GK, and Written portion. So by, putting more focus on these three sections will earn you more marks. Now let’s discuss what kind of questions you will encounter in each section of the Law Admission Test.
- If we start it with English, you will have a firm grip on vocabulary and Grammar. You will have to choose correct synonyms and antonyms and answer questions related to correct prepositions and subject-verb agreement.
- If we talk about general knowledge, which is one of the most challenging sections of LAT, it is considered that you must have a diverse understanding of almost everything. To some extent, it is true, but if we analyse past papers, we can easily categories these subjects into a clear outline.
- The topics of Pakistan studies are mainly divided into the heads of Pre partition and Post Partition. For pre-partition, a student must have a firm grip over the events of the Pakistan Movement. For Post partition, you should have a basic knowledge of constitutions and important events like martial laws in the post-independence history of Pakistan.
- For Urdu, one must have a good grip on basic Urdu grammar, Singular and Plural. A candidate must have deep knowledge of the basics of Islam if we talk about Islamic studies. Facts from Ghazwa, Holly prophet (P.B.U.H), Prophets Companions, Quran, Hadith, and Divine Books should be studied. While 8 Kinds of questions are included in the section on basic math.
How to write the best Essay and Personal Statement for LAT
Practice, Practice, Practice is the key to scoring the maximum in the written portion. The topic of the essay and personal statement is unseen but essential in its nature. You are given three essays, of which you must attempt one. In contrast, no choice is provided in the personal statement question. It is equally important to understand what criteria HEC give marks in the written portion. In this regard, you should be able to overview the instructions provided by HEC on its website. It would be best to focus on the word limit for these questions while attempting them in LAT.
The best method to do this is to practice the past paper topics. While attempting them, you must set a timer to judge how much time you spend writing your essay or personal statement. Because time management is crucial in any exam, you should practice enough before giving a final attempt.
How to Make Your Notes for LAT
I think making your notes can help effectively with your LAT Preparation. They will help you understand what you are learning and clarify your thinking. Thousands of Multiple choice questions are available on the internet. To make your notes, you should first download all the past papers. Then you can start preparing your notes section wise. Let’s say you are more comfortable with Pakistan Studies or Urdu, then you must begin to preparing these subjects first. Make sure that you do not loss interest in the very beginning of your preparation.
After selecting a subject to start your preparation make a brief outline of that subjects. Then start searching facts on that topics. Your course books can be very helpful in this regard. Try to keep the notes brief and clean so that before exam it will be easy for you to revise them. But the main thing which confuse students is the selection of relevant data in order to include them in their notes. Well I would say that the past papers will act as a beacon of light. Each and every question of past paper is a topic in itself. Let’s say the examiner in Pakistan studies asked a question about constitution of 1956. Now you have to search all the relevant and basic information on the topic constitution of Pakistan and include them in your notes.
Best Book for LAT Preparation
Traditionally whenever students start their preparation for LAT the first thing which they do is to search for a book. And to be honest it is one of the toughest thing to do. Because doing your preparation from any credible resource will guarantee your success. While any unauthentic resource will detract you from the path of getting maximum score in LAT. Before Elements of LAT students hardly find any authentic resource from which they do their preparation. But now the solution of your problem exists in the market.
Elements of LAT is the most authentic, comprehensive yet relevant guide for your LAT preparation. This Book Comes with Video lectures which will further make your task of preparation easy. So if you are confused about selecting a guide book for your LAT preparation then the best solution for your problem is Elements of LAT.
How to prepare Your Essay and Personal Statement for LAT
One of the most important section in LAT is written portion which consist of two sections Essay and Personal Statement writing. It can prove as a deciding factor in determining your final LAT score. Mostly students who do not follow the right strategy usually end up scoring 5 or 6 out of 25. While those who do it in the right way score 20 plus in this section. Let’s understand the importance of this section with this example, a student scored 57 marks out of 75 in MCQ section if he score 22 in written portion he will end up scoring 80 In Law Admission Test which is considered to be a good score for getting admission in top universities of Pakistan.
On the other hand if his colleague scored 60 out of 75 in MCQ section and only 8 marks in written portion he will end up scoring 68 marks in LAT. That is the importance of scoring well in written portion of Law Admission Test. This section cannot be underestimated over MCQ portion. Many students spend all their time in preparing the multiple choice section and give little or no time to their written portion. This technique will not help them while attempting their LAT.
Now let’s understand how the HEC examiner will evaluate our essay. This marking scheme is given by HEC. You can download the original file by visiting HEC website’s announcement section.
Performance Rating | Weight |
Proper/catchy beginning/Introduction | 15% |
Coherence and logical development of the argument | 20% |
Relevance and creativity of ideas | 30% |
Proper end/conclusion | 15% |
Appropriateness of vocabulary, soundness of grammar and spellings | 20% |
On the basis of these elements the examiner evaluate the essay of students and award them scores. Students while doing their practice and attempting their essay in LAT must take into consideration all the elements discussed above.
Selection of a Language for writing an essay for LAT
You can write your written portion both in English as well as in Urdu. But the question which always arises in the mind of students is that which language will earn you more marks. With due respect no language can earn you marks. In order to score well you have to write will. And in order to write well you need to read and practice well.
No matter you write your essay in English or in Urdu examiner will award you good scores if your essay is errorless. If you write in English and you made spelling mistakes in every line then definitely he will not award you good score. Same is the case with Urdu if you made grammatical mistakes or your basic sentence structure is not correct you will end up scoring poor scores in Essay portion. So Language does not matter what matter is you write errorless or you write according to the directions given by HEC mentioned in the above table.
Conclusion
Hence, in conclusion I would say that preparing LAT is not a difficult task but it requires your efforts in right directions. You need to give more attention to those sections which carry more marks in LAT. Secondly making good notes and consulting authentic resource will help you score good marks. Before starting your preparation I would recommend you to download all the past papers of LAT. In this way you can firstly evaluate your current preparation and it help you understand the nature and difficulty level of questions in LAT.