CLAT Essentials is proud to present Oyishee Bose, whose journey reflects perseverance, curiosity, and a passion for exploring the world of law beyond the classroom.
A student of Ashok Hall Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Oyishee pursued the Commerce stream in Classes XI and XII. Her dedication and consistency led her to secure an impressive 93.96 percentile in SLAT and achieve West Bengal Rank 39 in CLAT 2026. She also secured a seat at Faculty of Law, Dehli University. She will now begin her legal journey at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Punjab, where she will pursue B.A. LL.B..
Throughout her school years, Oyishee embraced leadership opportunities and served as a House Captain and Prefect, along with taking on the role of Editor-in-Chief of Ashok Hall Intramun 2024. Her participation in debates, MUNs, and moot court competitions further strengthened her interest in advocacy, research, and effective communication.
Beyond academics, Oyishee enjoys reading and photography, interests that allow her to explore different perspectives and express her creativity. With a blend of determination, leadership, and curiosity, she begins her journey in law with the aim of continuously learning and growing.
In this interview, Oyishee shares her preparation journey, experiences, and the lessons that shaped her path towards law school.
Q. Congratulations on your outstanding achievement. Could you share your immediate reaction upon receiving the CLAT 2026 results, and what this success signifies for you personally?
Honestly, my first reaction wasn’t celebration. I’d expected more from myself, and that feeling hit before anything else did. But the people around me were quick to pull me out of that headspace and remind me that I was being way too hard on myself. And eventually, I came around to believing them. Personally, this means a lot, but not just as a reflection of my own hard work. I genuinely could not have done this alone. Every bit of this belongs equally to the people who stood behind me through the entire journey. My family, whose support never wavered for a single day. My friends, who showed up every time I doubted myself. And my mentors, who believed in me even in the moments I didn’t. Their faith carried me further than I ever could have carried myself. I’m deeply grateful for that.
Q. What motivated your decision to pursue a career in law?
I was a Commerce student in Class 11 and 12 with zero clarity about my future, which, if you’ve ever been that person in a room full of people who already have five-year plans, you know, is a very humbling place to be. I’d always admired law as a field, but I carried the classic stereotype that it demanded some extraordinary level of brilliance I simply didn’t have. So I kept it at arm’s length.
Then my brother stepped in. Now, I should mention that his entire legal knowledge at the time came from watching the TV show “Suits”. But he looked at me and said I was made for law, that I’d be a great lawyer. And honestly? That nudge was somehow enough. So naturally, I did what any impressionable teenager would: I watched Suits. I loved it, obviously. But I was self-aware enough to know that real law wasn’t Harvey Specter closing million-dollar deals with one perfect line. That was television. Real law was something else entirely.
What that something else was, I found out almost by accident — when I participated in a moot court competition at my school. And something just clicked. The research, the arguments, the whole process of building a case I genuinely enjoyed it. That, paired with having Legal Studies as a subject, where I was actually getting to study law, the picture started to get clearer. By August–September of Class 12, I had my answer. Late by some standards, sure. But I’ve never been bothered by that, because my passion for law wasn’t forced or manufactured; it grew on its own, organically.
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?
I took a drop year to prepare for CLAT, and I’d made peace with the fact that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it properly. So I built my days around intention rather than rigid time slots.
Two things always got priority – Quantitative Techniques and General Knowledge. They were my weakest areas, and I knew it, so I tackled them during the parts of the day when my brain was actually cooperating. The rest of the day was more fluid: mock analysis, visiting the coaching centre for doubt-clearing, working on Reading Comprehension, and taking sectional tests. What exactly I did and in what order changed from day to day depending on where I was in my preparation. Some days called for more analysis, some days called for more practice. I just followed the agenda.
As for breaks, I never really scheduled them. I’m honestly just wired to know when I’ve hit my limit. Think of it like a free ChatGPT subscription: the moment I’ve used up my quota, I shut down completely. That’s my cue to step away, hang out with friends, take a power nap, or genuinely do nothing for a bit. It wasn’t the most conventional approach, but it worked for me.
Q. The decision to take a drop is rarely easy; there’s societal pressure, self-doubt, and uncertainty. How did you mentally prepare yourself for the drop year before it even began? And how did you know it was right for you?
Oh, trust me, I know. And what makes it harder is that the stigma around dropping a year is somehow still very much alive in 2026. The idea that ‘taking a drop means you’ve failed at something’ is a narrative that really needs to retire. But it exists. There were also moments of real self-doubt. The what-ifs would creep in at the most inconvenient times. What if it doesn’t work out? What if I’m not cut out for this? That spiral is very real and very exhausting. But at some point, I had to sit with a simple truth: you will never have the answer until you actually try. The uncertainty doesn’t go away by avoiding the leap; it just follows you into whatever safe choice you made instead. What genuinely made the difference, though, was my support system. My family didn’t just accept my decision; they pushed me toward it. They wanted me to give it my absolute best shot. My friends were equally incredible. Every time doubt started creeping in, they were right there to remind me that I could do this. Having people who believe in you when you’ve momentarily stopped believing in yourself is something truly invaluable.
Honestly, it wasn’t even much of a dilemma whether my decision to take a drop was right. This was the first time I was preparing for CLAT properly. Given that, taking the drop wasn’t really a choice I agonised over; it was the only logical step. If I had decided law was my path, then I owed it to myself to give it a real, genuine shot. Anything less would’ve just been unfair to the goal and to myself.
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?
Absolutely! You’re not the same person at the end of your preparation as you were at the beginning. You’ve grown, you’ve identified your weak spots, you’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. It would be strange if your approach to studying stayed frozen in place through all of that.
The initial phase of my preparation was comparatively relaxed in its approach and deliberately so. It was less about performance and more about foundation. Building skills across all sections, getting comfortable with the format, understanding where I stood, and most importantly, developing the habit of taking mocks and actually sitting down to analyse them rather than just taking them and moving on. That phase was about becoming a CLAT student. Getting into the rhythm of it all.
The last 30 days? A completely different energy.
GK took over my life, and I say that with full sincerity. The sheer volume of things you need to retain means that revision isn’t optional, it’s survival. I was going over current affairs constantly, and yes, I may have lost my mind a little in the process. But alongside the GK grind, I was equally focused on making sure I didn’t neglect the other sections. There’s a very specific danger in the final stretch where you become so consumed by one area that you go weeks without practising another, and then suddenly it feels like you’re starting from scratch. I was deliberate about not letting that happen. Staying sharp across the board, not just patching up weaknesses.
The last month isn’t about learning anymore. It’s about making sure everything you’ve already built is right there when you need it.
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?
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have those moments. Bad mock scores hit differently when you’ve put in genuine effort. But looking back, I think that reaction comes from the right place. If a poor score didn’t affect you at all, it would probably mean you didn’t care enough. The frustration is just your ambition showing up in an uncomfortable way.
What pulled me through those moments was my mentor at CLAT Essentials. He had this ability to catch me when I was spiralling and reorient my thinking entirely. The core shift he helped me make was: a mock score is not a verdict. It’s a tool. The number at the top of the page matters far less than what you do with everything beneath it – the mistakes, the patterns, the sections that keep tripping you up. A mock test is honestly the best diagnostic you have access to. It doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It just shows you exactly where the gaps are and hands you a roadmap, if you’re willing to read it that way.
Once that clicked, something changed. The narrative in my head shifted from I’m doing everything wrong to okay, this is fine, this is actually a good thing it happened now and not on the real day. Because that’s the truth, isn’t it? A bad mock is a problem you get to fix. A bad performance on the actual exam is a different conversation entirely. Burnout and self-doubt are part of the process. The goal isn’t to avoid them, it’s to have the right people and the right perspective to help you walk through them.
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?
The nerves were very much present. When you’ve spent months preparing for one single day, and that day finally arrives, it hits you in a way that’s genuinely hard to describe. There’s a strange cocktail of emotions. Part of you is excited to finally get it over with, and part of you is absolutely terrified of it getting over, because then you have to face whatever comes next. So anxiety? Completely natural. It found me too.
But here’s what kept me grounded: I reminded myself that I had done this exact thing before. Multiple times. Every week, in fact. Mocks aren’t just practice for your knowledge. They’re practice for your nerves. And I was particularly fortunate that CLAT Essentials conducted All India mock tests at Techno India, which, as it happens, is the actual CLAT centre. So when I walked in on exam day, I wasn’t walking into an unknown space. I’d sat in that environment, felt that atmosphere, and done the work there already. On the real day, it genuinely felt like just another time I had to show up and repeat what I’d already proven I could do.
I was also incredibly lucky to have seniors and mentors who sat me down beforehand and walked me through the day: every tip, every mistake to avoid, everything to keep in mind. Down to the little things, like not being careless with OMR marking. The reframe that helped most? This isn’t something new. You’ve already proven you can do this — exam day is just one more time.
A genuine piece of anyone preparing for CLAT – don’t cram GK the morning of. Have a slow morning, and since CLAT starts at 2 PM, time your wake-up so your energy peaks then, not at 11 AM. Trust your preparation. You’ve already done the hard part.
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?
My preparation was built almost entirely on two things: the CLAT Essentials study material and the CLAT Manual by Pearson. I used the CLAT Essentials material first to build and thoroughly clear all my concepts from the ground up. Once that foundation was solid, I turned to the Pearson manual to refine those concepts further and sharpen my skills.
That’s really it. I’m a firm believer that having too many resources can do more harm than good. You end up scattered, constantly second-guessing whether you’re studying the right thing. Depth over breadth, always. Pick your resources, trust them, and go all in.
Q. How instrumental were mock tests in your overall preparation strategy? Specifically, how did they aid in your conditioning for the actual exam environment?
I cannot stress this enough. Mock tests are the single most valuable thing in your CLAT preparation. Not a book, not a guide, not even your best mentor can do what a mock test does. A mock is a diagnostic. It doesn’t care about your feelings, it just shows you clearly and honestly where you’re going wrong. Take enough of them over time and they’re essentially handing you a personalised map of your weak areas. What more could you ask for?
I treated every single mock like it was the real exam. Same mindset, same pressure, same intent. And that consistency paid off in more ways than one. Speed improved, accuracy improved, and I always had a clear picture of what needed work and what I could rely on. There was never a phase of blindly preparing and just hoping for the best. By the time the actual exam came around, it felt familiar. Because in every way that mattered, I had already been there.
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?
My mentor once told me that a mock without analysis is a wasted mock. And I couldn’t agree more.
What’s the point of taking a mock if you’re not going back to understand why you got the score you did? Was it a conceptual gap? A silly mistake? And more importantly, is that silly mistake showing up repeatedly? That’s where the real work is.
I’ll be honest though, early in my preparation I had no idea how to analyse a mock. So for anyone reading this who feels the same way, here’s what it actually means: you go over the entire paper again, section by section. You look at the questions you got wrong and ask why. Was the passage unfamiliar? Is it a question type you’re consistently struggling with? Did you spend too much time on one section? Did you rush through another without giving yourself a real shot at it? All of that counts. A thorough analysis can take anywhere from three to five hours initially. That used to surprise people but it shouldn’t. You give it the time it needs, because nothing else in your preparation will give you as much back.
My process was simple. After every mock I’d go through it myself first, then sit with my peer group and discuss the questions we all got stuck on. Hearing how someone else approached a question you got wrong is genuinely eye opening. And if doubts still remained after that, I went straight to the faculty at CLAT Essentials.
One non-negotiable rule I had: never leave analysis for later. The longer you wait, the more you forget the passages, the context, the reasoning. Analyse while it’s fresh, or don’t bother.
Q. Given the vast scope of General Knowledge and Current Affairs, what methodology did you adopt to stay updated efficiently without feeling overwhelmed?
I massively underestimated GK at the start of my preparation. I thought I could pull it together in the last couple of months. To anyone thinking the same thing right now, please learn from my mistake. You cannot. The volume is enormous, and volume alone isn’t even the real problem. The real problem is retention. There will be topics you’ve covered thoroughly, topics you know you’ve studied, and yet when the question appears in front of you, your mind goes blank. That happens because of one reason only: insufficient revision.
Once that sank in, I built a proper structure around it. For current affairs, I relied on websites like Vajiram & Ravi and Vision IAS to make notes topic by topic, then got them verified by faculty to make sure nothing important was missing. But making notes was only step one. Every Sunday, I’d revise everything I had made through the week. That weekly cycle kept things from slipping away and made sure nothing was being read once and forgotten.
CLAT Essentials also helped massively by conducting regular mock tests and Telegram quizzes that kept us consistently engaged with GK. And this brings me to the most important takeaway: active learning beats passive reading every single time. Don’t just read and highlight. Take quizzes, test yourself, attempt questions. That is how things actually stick. GK rewards consistency above everything else. Start early, revise often, and never assume you’ll figure it out later.
Q. Time management is critical in a 120-minute examination. Could you walk us through your section-attempt strategy?
Time management honestly never been my biggest struggle, but I won’t pretend it was always smooth. Early on, finishing the paper was genuinely difficult, especially on sections where my concepts weren’t solid yet. But the more mocks I gave, the more natural it became. You stop thinking about time and start just doing it.
By the end of my preparation I could get through the paper comfortably, and that muscle memory carried into the real exam too. Though I’ll be honest, the actual CLAT did catch me off guard a little. It always feels slightly different from any mock you’ve taken, no matter how prepared you are.
My core strategy was simple: set an upper time limit for every section and stick to it. The moment you let one section bleed into another’s time, you’re in trouble. I made sure that no matter what, I wasn’t leaving any section untouched.
At the end of the day it really does come down to practice and how strictly you hold yourself to those limits during mocks. If you’re doing that consistently, the real exam takes care of itself. Time management is genuinely something anyone can get good at, it just needs repetition.
Q. In hindsight, is there any aspect of your preparation strategy that you would alter or improve upon if given the chance?
GK. That’s my answer. I underestimated it for way too long. And it wasn’t even that I didn’t study it. I made notes, I put in the time. But I didn’t focus on retention. I wasn’t revising consistently enough, and that gap showed up in my final score. I genuinely believe I could have done better had I taken that one thing more seriously.
If I could go back and tell myself anything, it would be exactly what I’d tell anyone reading this right now: do not take General Knowledge lightly. Start early, revise constantly, and treat it with the same seriousness as every other section.
Here’s why it matters so much. GK is the one section that is entirely in your hands. Every other section throws passages at you, puts you at the mercy of what shows up on the day. GK doesn’t. What you put in is exactly what you get out. That makes it the single biggest opportunity to add marks to your score, and leaving it to chance is just giving those marks away for free.
Don’t do what I did. Learn from it instead.
Q. How did you approach your second attempt differently — strategically, mentally, and in terms of resource selection?
So technically I did give CLAT 2025, but calling it a “first attempt” would be a stretch. I hadn’t really prepared for it. I went in mostly for the experience, to get a feel for what the exam was actually like. So in many ways, my drop year felt less like a second attempt and more like a genuine first one. Everything was built from scratch. Strategies, habits, mindset, all of it. I went in knowing the drop year wasn’t going to be easy and that I had to give it everything I had. No half measures. What helped was having the right resources and the right people around me from the start. CLAT Essentials gave me exactly that, and going in with that kind of support made a real difference. I just made sure I held up my end of it.
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?
Yes, and looking back it was one of the better decisions I made during my preparation.
There were so many things I simply didn’t know and wouldn’t have figured out on my own. I didn’t know the right way to analyse a mock. I didn’t even realise that skipping analysis was a mistake until someone pointed it out. Whenever I was making strategy errors, my mentors at CLAT Essentials caught it before it became a habit. That alone saved me a lot of wasted time. But beyond the technical stuff, a mentor also shows up for the harder moments. The self doubt, the bad mock scores, the days where you feel like you’re going nowhere. Mine kept me grounded through all of it, without ever letting me get too comfortable after the good days either. Having someone experienced in your corner who you can trust completely, who tracks where you are and steers you when you’re going off course, makes a bigger difference than most people expect going in. I’d genuinely recommend it to anyone preparing for a competitive exam like CLAT.
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 was always a habit, but with a very specific catch that I only ever read fiction. A particular kind of fiction at that. So going into prep I genuinely thought I had an advantage. I like reading, I read a lot growing up, this should be fine.
It was not fine.
CLAT does not care about your preferences. The passages come from everywhere – philosophy, economics, science, law, literature. You have no idea what’s walking through that door. And when a dense philosophical or economics passage showed up, my brain would essentially short circuit. I could not, for the life of me, figure out what it was trying to say. So I had to consciously fix that. I started deliberately reading the kinds of passages I was most uncomfortable with. Not because I enjoyed it, but because avoidance wasn’t going to help me on exam day. Slowly, those passages stopped feeling like a foreign language. I got used to the structure, the tone, the way arguments were built in those genres.
The takeaway is simple: diversify your reading early. Don’t just read what you like. Read what challenges you, because that is exactly what CLAT will throw at you.
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 analysing their mocks. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again because it really is that important. Taking mock after mock without sitting down to understand what went wrong is one of the most counterproductive things you can do. You’re essentially doing the hard part and skipping the useful part. Mocks exist to show you where you’re falling short. If you’re not willing to go back and do that work, you’re actively holding your own preparation back and then wondering why your scores aren’t moving. The weak areas don’t fix themselves just because you took another mock.
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?
CLAT 2026 genuinely threw us off. The logical reasoning section was entirely Analytical Reasoning; no critical reasoning, no classic passages, nothing we typically associate with that section. In the first minute or two of going through the paper, my stomach dropped. I remember thinking okay, this is different, everything is going sideways. Then I just closed my eyes and asked myself, “What exactly are you panicking about?” I knew AR. I had prepared it well. My seniors had specifically told me not to underestimate it, which is why I had put in the extra effort. So yes, the shock of seeing it was very real. But the shock of doing something for the first time? That wasn’t there. Because it wasn’t the first time.
And that is exactly the advice I’d give anyone going into CLAT. Expect the paper to be unpredictable. If you think you know exactly what’s coming, you don’t. Nobody does. The only real way to handle an unpredictable paper is to leave no section behind during preparation. Cover everything, even the things that seem unlikely. Because on the day itself, you won’t have the luxury of figuring it out from scratch.
The difference between panic and composure on exam day is really just whether you’ve done the work beforehand. Turns out, that’s the only trick there is.
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 won’t pretend it wasn’t there. When you’re working as hard as you possibly can and you see someone around you doing better, the comparison draws itself. You don’t even choose it. It just happens, and suddenly you’re convinced you’re falling behind.
But I think what matters isn’t whether comparison hits you. It’s what you do with it.
For me, I used it as fuel. Every time that feeling crept in, I channelled it into the next week’s preparation. More focus, more effort, better analysis. And there were moments later on where I could look back and see that I had actually surpassed people I once measured myself against. That feeling is worth chasing a lot more than the comparison itself.
So my honest take is this: you probably won’t be able to switch it off completely, and that’s okay. Just don’t let it paralyse you. Let it push you instead.
Q. Based on your experience, what is your primary advice for future aspirants targeting CLAT 2027?
You cannot predict what the paper will look like. You cannot predict what will surprise you on that day. CLAT 2026 proved that better than anything I could say. So stop trying to game it and just prepare for all of it. Every section, every topic, no gaps, no shortcuts. And then trust yourself. Walk into that exam knowing there is nothing you left undone. That confidence is not arrogance, it is just what genuine preparation feels like from the inside. Do that, and you’ll be just fine.
Q. Finally, what is your message to students who are currently weighing whether to take a drop for CLAT 2027 — both those who should take it and those who perhaps shouldn’t?
There is no right or wrong answer here. It completely depends on your situation, your mindset, and honestly, the kind of person you are.
If you’ve given CLAT and are not satisfied with your result, and you genuinely believe another year of focused preparation can change things, then the option is absolutely on the table. But go in with your eyes open. Understand that it is a high risk, high reward decision. Things might not go the way you plan. Are you willing to give another year knowing that? If the answer is yes, you already know what to do.
And if you do take that drop, know what you’re signing up for. Doing the same thing every single day for a year is harder than it sounds. There will be days where the routine wears you down, where the self doubt gets loud, where the societal pressure feels suffocating and you wonder if you’re doing everything wrong. That is not a sign that you made the wrong choice. That is just what the process feels like from the inside sometimes. You push through it anyway, trusting that everything you are putting in each day is compounding into something, even when you cannot see it yet.
But here is the other side of it. A drop year is not for everyone, and there is absolutely no shame in that. If you are not in the right headspace for it, if you are not genuinely willing to put in the work, it will be a very long and difficult year for no payoff. Be honest with yourself about that before you decide.
Sit with all of it. The best case, the worst case, everything in between. If after all of that you are mentally ready and willing to back yourself completely, then go for it. And if you do, give it everything you have got. No half measures.
A CLAT Essentials Interview by Rajneesh Singh (Founder, Clat Essentials)