CLAT Essentials is proud to present Inaaya Waqar, whose journey reflects dedication, intellectual curiosity, and a passion for engaging with law and society beyond the classroom.
A student of Sushila Birla Girls’ School, Inaaya actively participated in Model United Nations conferences, representing her school at prestigious events such as Jadavpur University and Blue Bells MUNs, where she earned several accolades. She also contributed to her school’s debate and moot court teams, showcasing her skills in advocacy and critical thinking. Her involvement in events like Convergence and her role in the videography team for the school blog highlight her versatility and leadership.
Inaaya’s interest in writing has been a defining aspect of her journey. She has authored three published blogs,two on trans rights and euthanasia in the Journal of Legal Research and Judicial Sciences, and another on prenuptial agreements and family law in Jus Corpus. These works reflect her commitment to exploring complex legal and social issues with depth and clarity.
Beyond academics, Inaaya enjoys reading and travelling, pursuits that allow her to discover new places, meet diverse people, and engage with different perspectives. With a blend of determination, creativity, and intellectual curiosity, she now continues her legal journey at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), where she is pursuing her LL.B. degree.
In this interview, Inaaya shares her experiences, preparation strategies, 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, when I got the call, I was a little overwhelmed, but very happy. I had worked really hard for this, so hearing that I was joining WBNUJS felt really special. I had always wanted NUJS because it is in my own city, and I had heard so much about its strong academic environment and the opportunities it gives students. So, for me, it was a moment of relief and happiness, and a feeling that all the hard work had finally paid off.
Q. What motivated your decision to pursue a career in law?
Before Class 11, I was at that stage where I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life. It felt like everyone around me already had a plan, while I was still trying to figure out what I was actually good at. I remember being quite anxious about it and taking several career tests just to understand my personality and what kind of career might suit me. And with my inherent hatred for maths, I knew that anything too maths-heavy was probably not for me.
Around the same time, I watched Suits and Legally Blonde, which definitely made law catch my attention. But what made me take it more seriously was that I already enjoyed debating and arguing different sides of an issue. I also participated in a moot court in school, and I genuinely loved the experience of researching an issue, building an argument, and presenting it. It was these experiences that made me realise that law actually suited me.
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 never really followed a fixed timetable. Instead, I had a list of things I wanted to get done each day, week, and month, and I would structure my day around those tasks. There were a few things I made sure I did regularly: at least five to six GK topics, one to two hours of maths depending on my schedule, and one to two hours of reading. This could be an editorial, a newspaper, or any other reading material, but I made sure I was actually reading and analysing it. Reading was an area I had to work on because my reading speed was low and, initially, I had a very low tolerance for long passages. So, I made sure to read different kinds of material and slowly build that stamina.
Mocks were also a big part of my preparation. Initially, I took at least three mocks a week and gradually increased that to four. A lot of my time went into analysing my mocks and regularly clearing the doubts that came up while doing them. The exact timings were never fixed, and I would take breaks when I needed them and study when I felt most productive.
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?
Managing school, CLAT preparation, and extracurriculars was honestly quite difficult, especially with the amount of academics and co-curricular activities in school. When I first gave CLAT, I was still in school, and I realised afterwards that I had made a major mistake in how I approached the exam. I then took a drop and prepared again.
During my board year, I gave CLAT more priority, but I made sure to focus on school around pre-boards, tests and exams. Outside those periods, most of my time went into CLAT because I had several areas I needed to improve. I think the key is to set your priorities and plan ahead, while understanding that the balance will be different for everyone.
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?
My last 30 days were completely different from the earlier months of my preparation. Instead of spending a lot of time reading, I shifted my focus heavily towards mocks. I took at least five to six mocks a week and spent a lot of time analysing them to understand my mistakes and patterns. For maths, I stopped doing chapter-wise practice and focused more on revising the basics and solving mixed questions, especially from my weaker areas.
I also went into overdrive with GK, especially with the medal tests conducted by my faculty at CE. At the same time, if I came across a topic in a mock that I had missed during my preparation, I would briefly read up on it, even if it wasn’t a very important topic. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t leaving any obvious gaps. So, the final month was mainly about mocks, analysis, GK, and strengthening the basics rather than trying to learn everything from scratch.
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 is honestly a very normal part of preparing for a rigorous exam, especially when you have so much on your plate. Whenever I felt really burnt out, I would take a day or two to step away from preparation. I never skipped my mocks, medal tests, or anything with a fixed deadline, but apart from that, I gave myself some time to recharge. I would hang out with friends or family, read novels that I actually enjoyed, watch Netflix, or sometimes travel with them for a day or two.
I think the important thing is not to feel guilty for being burnt out. Everyone goes through those slumps, and sometimes forcing yourself to study when you’re exhausted only makes things worse. For me, taking that short break helped me come back feeling refreshed and ready to get back to my 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?
Honestly, exam anxiety has always been something I’ve struggled with. I tend to make silly mistakes when I’m nervous, partly because I put a lot of expectations on myself and get scared of making a mistake. But I had learnt from my earlier experiences how much that anxiety could affect my performance, so I tried to manage it rather than let it take over.
Before the exam, I would make a rough plan of how I wanted to approach the paper and remind myself to focus on what I could do rather than everything that could go wrong. I also made sure I was properly hydrated and, if I felt too overwhelmed during the exam, I would take 10-15 seconds, have some water, breathe, clear my head and continue. I don’t think exam anxiety is something you can completely switch off, but learning to pause and get yourself back on track can make a big difference.
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 me, the most important resource throughout my preparation was honestly mocks. I primarily used C.E. Mocks, but I also tried mocks from a few other institutions because I wanted to get used to different kinds of questions and paper patterns. I didn’t just take the mocks and move on. I spent a lot of time analysing them, going through every mistake, understanding why I got something wrong, and clearing my doubts. I would also revisit my mocks and GK quizzes regularly to see if there were any areas I was repeatedly getting wrong. That analysis became a very important part of my preparation because it helped me understand my actual weaknesses rather than just looking at my score.
Apart from mocks, I regularly read newspapers, especially the editorials in The Hindu and The Indian Express, to improve my reading and understanding of different issues. For Maths, I used the CLAT Essentials Maths workbook and concept book. For GK, our faculty would give us a list of topics, and I would use different online resources to research them and make my own notes. If I came across a topic that seemed too complicated or I didn’t know where to start, I would first watch a few YouTube videos to get a basic understanding and then read about it in more detail. I also kept going back to my mocks and quizzes to see if there were things I had missed in my GK notes. Whenever I found something new or something I had got wrong, I would add it to my notes and revise it later. So my notes and preparation kept evolving along with my mocks and medal tests.
Q. How instrumental were mock tests in your overall preparation strategy? Specifically, how did they aid in your conditioning for the actual exam environment?
Mock tests were probably the most important part of my preparation. If there is one thing I would focus on the most, it would be mocks, and specifically, the marks I got in them. It is very important to take mocks seriously. Don’t give them half-heartedly or follow the time limit. Don’t cheat yourself, and always analyse your mock afterwards. Look at where you lost marks, understand your mistakes, and clear your doubts. I can’t stress this enough.
Also, don’t go into a mock with a fixed strategy. Give it open-mindedly, adapt to the paper, and treat it like the actual exam. If you start thinking of it as “just a mock,” you won’t necessarily put in your best effort. The level of competition also helped because I could see where I stood compared to others. Over time, this made me much more comfortable with the pressure, time management, and unpredictability of the actual exam.
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 didn’t maintain a very elaborate error log. The main thing I tracked was my scorecard for every mock. I would record my scores and keep checking whether I was improving, stagnating, or going down. That gave me a simple way of seeing whether my overall preparation was actually moving in the right direction.
Most of my post-mock analysis, however, was much more detailed. I would go through every question I got wrong, but also questions I got right despite having a doubt or simply getting them right by luck. I would also revisit questions I had left unanswered or where, on looking at them again, I felt my approach could have been better. Basically, I tried to look at every grey area that could potentially cause a problem in the actual exam. This would often leave me with quite a few doubts, which I would regularly get cleared. Once I understood where I had gone wrong, I made a conscious effort to remember the mistake or concept so that I wouldn’t repeat it in the next mock.
Q. Given the vast scope of General Knowledge and Current Affairs, what methodology did you adopt to stay updated efficiently without feeling overwhelmed?
I think it is almost impossible not to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of GK and Current Affairs in CLAT. It is also very easy to procrastinate on it because there is always another topic to read. I did that initially, too. In the beginning, I would mostly prepare my GK topics before medal tests, mock tests or open mocks, but after a month or two, I realised that this was actually hurting my preparation. I was rushing through topics, making half-hearted notes, and not retaining enough.
So I made a conscious effort to stay consistent. I started making notes on at least five GK topics every day, and as the exam got closer, I increased that to around 10-15 topics a day. I also made sure to regularly revise what I had already covered and update my notes when there were new developments. With such a large syllabus, forgetting things or mixing up information is completely normal, so I found that regularly testing myself and revising was much more useful than simply making more and more notes.
Q. Time management is critical in a 120-minute examination. Could you walk us through your section-attempt strategy?
I don’t think there is one fixed section-wise strategy that works for the actual CLAT, because so much depends on the paper you get. Even though I had a rough plan based on my mocks, I knew I would have to adapt if the difficulty or pattern of a section changed. At the beginning of the exam, I would take around 1-2 minutes to skim through the paper and get a sense of what had changed and how I wanted to divide my time. I usually preferred doing Maths early because I needed a fresh mind for it, while I liked keeping GK somewhere in between the other sections to give myself a mental break.
I generally aimed for around 25 minutes each for English and Logical Reasoning, 30 minutes for Legal, 10-15 minutes for Maths, and around 8 minutes for GK. Of course, I did exceed some of these, especially Maths and, on the actual exam day, Logical Reasoning, because the section was quite different from what I had expected. I think the bigger lesson for me was not to become too attached to a fixed strategy. Sticking to your time limits is important, but being able to recognise when a section is taking too long, leave a passage and come back to it, or move to another section can be just as important. The paper has to dictate your strategy to some extent.
Q. In hindsight, is there any aspect of your preparation strategy that you would alter or improve upon if given the chance?
Looking back, the first thing I would change is how I handled my anxiety. Even when I knew the answer to a question, I would sometimes hesitate because I was scared of losing marks. At times, I would change an answer I knew was right or make a silly mistake because I was nervous. So I think I would try to build that confidence into my mock-taking itself, rather than only trying to deal with it on the actual exam day.
I also think I overcomplicated my GK preparation. I studied a lot, but on the day of CLAT, that sometimes worked against me because I would overthink simple questions or get information mixed up. Apart from that, I would have practised AR more. I had practised CR much more, and although I could solve most AR questions, my speed wasn’t where I wanted it to be. These are probably the three things I would change if I could prepare all over again.
Q. Based on your experience, what is your primary advice for future aspirants targeting CLAT 2027?
My first advice would be not to go into CLAT with a very rigid strategy in your head. The paper can change, sometimes quite drastically, and if you are too attached to one way of attempting it, that change can throw you off. Learn to adapt based on the paper in front of you.
I would also strongly recommend not taking GK lightly. It is one of the most important parts of the preparation and can make a real difference to your score and, ultimately, the college you get into. Apart from that, don’t neglect AR. The 2026 paper showed how important it can be, so make sure you practise it alongside CR.
For Maths, I would say don’t stop practising just because the topics have been fairly consistent over the last few years or because the concepts seem simple. The paper can always introduce a different topic or make even a familiar topic more calculation-heavy. So make sure you build speed along with accuracy, and remember the shortcuts and quicker methods you have learnt. A Maths question might be completely solvable, but if you spend too much time on it, that time comes at the cost of another section. In a time-bound paper like CLAT, that can make a real difference. Most importantly, stay consistent and don’t leave gaps in your preparation, thinking you’ll cover them later.
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?
I think one of the most important parts of my CLAT preparation was the one-on-one mentoring I did extensively with my the faculty at CE. I would often start a discussion with one topic and end up talking about something completely different, and in the process, I would learn a lot more than what I had initially come to ask. These sessions also made me realise that some concepts I thought I knew weren’t actually ingrained properly, so I had to unlearn and relearn quite a few things.
A lot of my legal concepts became much clearer because I could discuss them in detail with the faculty, and that really helped me when I attempted the Legal section. With my mentor, I remember doing regular doubt-clearing and review sessions where I learnt a lot about how to think logically. More importantly, I learnt to engage with a question deeply enough to discuss and defend my reasoning, rather than simply accepting an explanation. I think that process of questioning, analysing and discussing things built an ability in me to reason better, understand why an answer was right or wrong, and eventually apply that way of thinking to the CLAT paper. So, for me, one-on-one mentoring wasn’t just about clearing doubts. It genuinely changed the way I approached the exam.
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?
When I started my CLAT preparation, I realised that reading was actually a weak point for me. Since I was a kid, I had been a very picky reader and would mostly read things I enjoyed. My reading speed was also quite slow, especially when the topic was something I wasn’t interested in, so building that habit was honestly quite difficult.
The biggest thing I did was simply read a lot. I regularly read editorials and other diverse material, timed myself while reading, and would sometimes send one-line summaries to my mentors to make sure I had actually understood what I had read. The Revili sessions I did with my mentor also helped me understand how to approach and move through paragraphs more efficiently. I think timing yourself and reading different kinds of material is really important. Once you identify the areas you struggle with, you should deliberately read more about them. The more familiar you become with different subjects and styles of writing, the less likely you are to find a passage completely alien, and that naturally helps both your comprehension and your speed.
Q. Having gone through the entire journey yourself, what is the single biggest mistake you see fellow aspirants making that silently kills their rank?
I think one of the biggest mistakes aspirants make is treating mocks as something to simply finish and move on from. Either they don’t give enough mocks, or they give more mocks than they can actually analyse properly. And even when they do analyse them, they don’t spend enough time clearing the doubts that come out of them. A mock is only useful if you understand where you went wrong and actually work on it afterwards.
Apart from that, I think not taking GK seriously and not making proper notes can quietly hurt your rank. Just skimming through current affairs and assuming you’ll remember them later isn’t enough. The same goes for Maths. Even if the concepts seem easy, not practising enough can cost you valuable time in the exam. These small gaps might not seem serious during preparation, but they can make a significant difference on the final day.
Q. What’s your advice for future aspirants on handling an unpredictable paper?
CLAT is unpredictable, and I don’t think there is much point in trying to predict what the paper will look like. Instead, I would focus on building your skill set. If your concepts are clear, you have practised enough, you are consistent with your preparation, and you have worked on your weaknesses, you will be in a much better position to handle something unfamiliar on the exam day.
It is also important to remember that if something is new or unusually difficult, it is new or difficult for everyone. So instead of worrying about what might come, focus on doing what you can control: prepare well, build your skills and stay consistent. Once you have done that, you have to trust your preparation and deal with whatever paper you get on the day.
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, as someone who is naturally quite competitive, comparing my scores with others was actually more of a motivation for me than something that negatively affected me. Of course, there was always that little feeling of, “Why am I not at the top? Why am I not number one?” But instead of letting that get to me, I used it to understand what others were doing differently.
After a mock, if someone had scored better than I did, I would often talk to them about how they approached the paper, look at where they had done better than I did, and try to understand what I could have done differently. So, while there was definitely a little “Why are they doing better than me?” feeling, it pushed me to work harder rather than bring me down. I think competition had a pretty positive effect on my preparation because it gave me something to constantly work towards.
Q. If you had previously appeared for CLAT, how did you approach your second attempt differently – strategically, mentally, and in terms of resource selection?
The biggest difference in my second attempt was that I spent more time building my basic skill set rather than just changing my strategy. When I first prepared for CLAT, I realised that there were several areas where I still needed to grow if I wanted to get into a really good college. So the second time around, I worked a lot on my speed, comprehension and ability to analyse questions quickly. I also worked much harder on Maths and built up my reading tolerance, because I knew these were areas where I was losing time.
I also became more consistent with GK and tried to be more aware of what was happening around me. In terms of strategy, I learned that you cannot have one fixed approach because the paper can change, so I focused more on developing skills that would help me adapt to whatever came on the exam. Mentally, I was also much more aware of my mistakes from the first attempt, which helped me approach the second one with a clearer idea of what I needed to work on.
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?
As someone who took a drop myself, I think the first question you need to ask yourself is whether it is something you genuinely want. It is not a decision you should take because your family, friends, or anyone else is pressuring you. A drop is a big decision, and you should take the time to honestly assess where you stand, what you want, and whether you are willing to put in the work to improve.
You also have to be realistic about what a drop year involves. There will be distractions, there will be days when you procrastinate, and without school or college keeping you on track, discipline becomes very important. If you know that you can stay consistent, work hard and genuinely want another shot at getting the college you want, then a drop can absolutely be worth it. But if you are unsure or are doing it mainly because someone else expects you to, I don’t think you should. Ultimately, it should be your decision, based on your own goals, your current skill set, and how willing you are to work on it.
A Clat Essentials interview by Tina Chakraborty
Tina Chakraborty is a first-year law student at The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences with a keen interest in legal research, policy discourse, and emerging areas of law. A former Head Girl of Army Public School, she has consistently demonstrated excellence in academics, leadership, and communication.
She currently serves on the editorial teams of the Society for International Trade & Competition Law and the Intellectual Property and Technology Laws Society, contributing to research-oriented legal writing and academic initiatives. Tina was also the Runners-Up at the Inter APS National Debate Competition and achieved distinction as a State Topper in Class X and School Topper in Class XII.
With a strong research-oriented approach and an analytical editorial voice, she aspires to contribute meaningfully to contemporary legal and policy discussions.
