CLAT Essentials is proud to present Aakanksh Bajpai, whose journey to WBNUJS, Kolkata reflects the power of consistency, curiosity, and staying true to one’s interests beyond academics.
Hailing from Bangalore, Aakanksh secured an impressive AIR 522 in CLAT and is set to pursue the B.Sc. LL.B. programme at WBNUJS. While his interest in law has always been driven by a fascination with advocacy and public affairs, his journey has also been shaped by the experiences and passions he has pursued along the way.
An avid follower of sports, movies, and music, Aakanksh believes in maintaining a balance between ambition and the things that inspire him. His participation in eight MUNs and success in two Model Parliament competitions further strengthened his interest in discussion, debate, and understanding different perspectives.
With a CLAT journey built on perseverance, self-belief, and learning from challenges, Aakanksh joins us to share his preparation experience, the lessons he gained along the way, and his advice for future aspirants.
Q. Congratulations on your outstanding achievement. Could you share your immediate reaction upon receiving the news that you are joining WBNUJS, and what this success signifies for you personally?
It feels great to see my hard work being rewarded. There’s a certain satisfaction that comes when the effort you’ve quietly put in over months finally reflects in a tangible outcome. It validated a lot of the choices I made during preparation, especially the ones that seemed unconventional at the time.
Q. What motivated your decision to pursue a career in law?
I had done a lot of Model United Nations and Model Parliaments in school, and through those experiences I developed a genuine passion for structured argumentation and policy thinking. I always had a strong inclination towards debate, and over time I began looking for a career that could channel that naturally. Law felt like the most fitting avenue — it’s a field where the ability to reason, argue, and communicate clearly isn’t just useful, it’s essential.
Q. Could you outline the daily routine you adhered to during your preparation? Specifically, how did you structure your day to ensure effective study hours versus necessary breaks?
At the start, there wasn’t much of a fixed routine — it was more about finding pockets of time to study wherever I could. Things became more structured around the last two months. I settled into a pattern where I would cover the bulk of new material and practice during the day when my focus was sharpest, and then use the evenings for revision to consolidate what I’d done. Breaks were mostly tied to meals, and I’d usually give myself around 30 minutes to an hour after eating before getting back to work. It wasn’t rigid, but it was consistent enough to build momentum.
Q. You were simultaneously managing school board exam pressure, CLAT preparation, and extracurricular commitments. How did you practically divide your time across all three — did you follow a fixed weekly schedule, and did school ever take priority over CLAT prep?
CLAT always took first priority, and I was clear about that from fairly early on. I’d rather be where I am now with 85% in boards than at a worse NLU with 95% — that trade-off made complete sense to me. I knew that with the gap days between board exams, I could cover my school subjects well enough if I trusted myself to do so, so I backed that instinct. As for extracurriculars, I was heavily involved in planning and organising things at school throughout. It was never something I felt I needed to give up because I genuinely enjoyed it — and honestly, it gave me a mental reset when the preparation got heavy.
Q. Did your study routine evolve as the exam date approached, particularly in the final month? How did your strategy in the last 30 days differ from the initial phase of your preparation?
Definitely. The final month looked very different from the earlier phases. I had taken leave from school by then, which meant the entire day was available to me. Mornings remained the most productive part of my day — that didn’t change — but the scale of what I was doing shifted significantly. Mock tests, which I had been writing roughly once a week earlier, became an almost every-other-day affair in that final stretch. The focus moved from learning and absorbing to refining, consolidating, and building exam-day conditioning.
Q. The preparation journey is often long and arduous. How did you navigate periods of burnout or suboptimal performance in your mock tests to maintain your momentum?
Burnout, fortunately, didn’t really hit me the way it does some people. In terms of mock performance, I always accepted early on that I wouldn’t have a great mock every single time — that’s just not realistic. After a poor mock, I’d step away for a day, let it settle, and get back into it the next day without dragging the bad performance forward mentally. Those breaks were genuinely restorative. The key was never letting one bad test define the trajectory of the preparation.
Q. CLAT is distinct for its high-pressure, speed-intensive nature. How did you manage exam-day anxiety, and did you utilize any specific techniques to maintain composure during the test?
Mocks were everything in this regard. I wrote close to a hundred of them, and I made a deliberate effort to write them in all kinds of conditions and environments. The idea was that by exam day, I would have already encountered almost every possible disruption or unfavourable scenario at least once. So nothing would feel entirely new or shocking. During the exam itself, I think the most important mental shift is to treat questions as exactly what they are — just questions. Getting emotionally attached to a difficult passage or taking a wrong answer personally mid-exam is damaging. The faster you can set aside a bad question and move on, the better your overall performance will be.
Q. With the abundance of study material available, could you list the primary resources, books, periodicals, or platforms that you found most indispensable to your success?
For books, Clat Essentials’ material was excellent for building a strong conceptual base, especially in the earlier phases. For current affairs, I relied on Competition Success Review as my primary periodical. Beyond material, I think having a few trusted mentors who could filter the noise and point you toward what actually matters is invaluable — there is simply too much content available to consume everything. I used other study materials as structured resources, and after a few months of consistent work, I found I was able to identify important topics independently. That ability to self-filter is something you develop over time.
Q. How instrumental were mock tests in your overall preparation strategy? Specifically, how did they aid in your conditioning for the actual exam environment?
Mocks were my greatest weapon, without question. I used them not just as assessment tools but as active practice — particularly for reading comprehension and mathematics, which I had essentially moved away from drilling separately in the final month. Getting into a consistent rhythm of writing mocks ensures that you can approach the actual exam with a degree of familiarity and muscle memory. More importantly, I tried to make every possible mistake during my mocks so that those errors could be identified, corrected, and eliminated before they showed up on the day that actually mattered.
Q. Beyond merely attempting mock tests, how did you approach the post-test analysis? Did you maintain a systematic record of errors to track your improvement?
I’d usually give myself about an hour after finishing a mock before sitting down to analyse it — enough time to decompress but not so long that the experience faded. For General Knowledge specifically, I would spend the rest of that day going back and thoroughly researching every topic that had appeared in the mock, regardless of whether I had got those questions right or wrong. That way, mocks became a source of GK revision in themselves, not just a performance check. One thing I’d stress is the importance of analysing questions you got right, not just the ones you got wrong. In Legal and Logical Reasoning especially, many correct answers come down to eliminating between two close options. Understanding why the right answer was right — and aligning your reasoning with how the exam thinks — is just as valuable as understanding your mistakes.
Q. Given the vast scope of General Knowledge and Current Affairs, what methodology did you adopt to stay updated efficiently without feeling overwhelmed?
I read the newspaper, but not as a primary source of learning in itself. I used it more as a trigger — something to surface topics that I could then research more deeply. The newspaper gives you breadth; the deeper research gives you retention. And again, having a few reliable mentors who could tell me what was actually important to focus on in a subject as vast as current affairs made a significant difference. You simply cannot cover everything, so knowing where to concentrate is half the battle.
Q. Time management is critical in a 120-minute examination. Could you walk us through your section-attempt strategy?
My approach was quite different from what most teachers recommend, but it worked well for me. I began with General Knowledge, which I would try to get through in around 10 minutes. Knocking those out quickly gave me a real confidence boost going into the rest of the paper. Mathematics I saved for the end, treating it as a section where I could maximise my score without the pressure of time running out. English, Legal, and Logical Reasoning I attempted in sequence in the middle. Three analytically intense sections back to back was tough, and I struggled with it initially — but consistent mock practice got me conditioned to it over time.
Q. In hindsight, is there any aspect of your preparation strategy that you would alter or improve upon if given the chance?
Start earlier. That’s the clearest thing I can say. Everything else about the approach felt right, but having more time would have allowed me to be more thorough and less rushed in certain phases, particularly in the earlier months when I was still finding my footing.
Q. When did you seriously begin your CLAT preparation, and looking back, do you think you started too early, too late, or at exactly the right time?
Looking back, I started a bit too late. I made it work, and I’m happy with where I ended up, but I was aware during certain stretches that I was working against a tighter timeline than I would have liked. Earlier would have been better.
Q. Did you take up any dedicated mentoring support, and how important do you think one-on-one mentoring from experienced educators is in shaping a student’s CLAT preparation?
Extremely important. I’ve touched on this across multiple answers because I genuinely believe it’s one of the most underrated aspects of preparation. I took dedicated mentoring from Clat Essentials, and it was an integral part of my preparation. Having someone experienced who can guide your focus, filter out irrelevant material, and give you targeted direction saves an enormous amount of time and second-guessing. CLAT prep can feel overwhelming in its scope, and a good mentor helps you navigate that with more clarity and confidence.
Q. The comprehension-heavy format of CLAT rewards strong readers. Was reading always a habit for you, or did you consciously build it during prep — and if so, how?
Reading has always been a significant part of my life, so that foundation was there. But reading casually and reading intensively for two straight hours with sustained focus are very different things. The latter had to be built deliberately, and the best tool for that, again, was mocks. Writing timed mocks regularly forces you to develop that concentration and endurance in a way that passive reading simply doesn’t.
Q. Having gone through the entire journey yourself, what is the single biggest mistake you see fellow aspirants making that silently kills their rank?
Not attempting the quantitative section. The AIR 1 this year scored 112. If you skip quant entirely, you’re already capped at around 108. Factor in that GK is unpredictable and you’re unlikely to score full marks there — that’s roughly 6 marks gone. Even if you’re extremely strong in Logic, English, and Legal Reasoning, you’ll realistically drop another 4–5 marks across those sections. Your score is already sitting around 97. Now add even 8 of the 12 quant marks back in, and suddenly you’re looking at 105. That difference is the difference between a top NLU and missing out entirely. Quant is learnable, it’s scoreable, and ignoring it is one of the most costly decisions a CLAT aspirant can make.
Q. CLAT 2026 surprised most aspirants with its heavy analytical reasoning focus and a pattern quite distinct from what was expected. How did you keep your composure when you realized this mid-exam, and what’s your advice for future aspirants on handling an unpredictable paper?
You have to stay disconnected from the meta-experience of the paper while you’re in it. It’s very easy to panic when you notice the pattern is different or when a section feels harder than expected. But that reaction costs you time and composure that you can’t afford to lose. The approach is simple: forget bad questions as quickly as you can, move on, and never lose your cool. You can process it all afterwards. During the exam, every second of composure is a second spent productively.
Q. Comparison with peers is one of the most silent yet damaging traps during CLAT prep. Did you ever fall into it, and how did you learn to block out that noise?
I think the quality of the people around you determines whether comparison becomes toxic or constructive. With the right peers — people who are similarly driven but not cutthroat about it — comparison stays healthy. It can push you to work harder without making you feel inadequate. So my advice wouldn’t be to completely block out what others are doing, but rather to be thoughtful about who you choose to surround yourself with during this period.
Q. Based on your experience, what is your primary advice for future aspirants targeting CLAT 2027?
Start early, and don’t let it take over your life. Both parts matter equally. Starting early gives you the time to prepare without panicking, and maintaining some balance ensures you don’t burn out or lose perspective before the exam even arrives.
A CLAT Essentials Interview by Oyishee Bose