CLAT Exam Timing 2027, Reporting Time, Bell Schedule and Exam Day Plan

All of these details come from the official CLAT 2027 notice and instruction pages put out by the Consortium. The Consortium also says the date and time can change if there is a real need. So the time printed on your admit card is the one that counts. You can see every CLAT 2027 date in one place on our CLAT 2027 exam date page.

What Time Is the CLAT Exam?

The CLAT exam starts at 2 PM and ends at 4 PM. It happens in the afternoon, in one sitting, all over India. A student in Delhi and a student in Kochi open the same question booklet at the same minute.

This timing should change the way you prepare in three ways.

1. It is an afternoon paper. Your mind needs to be at its sharpest between 2 PM and 4 PM. If you take every mock test at 9 in the morning, you are practising for the wrong time of day.

2. There is only one sitting. There is no second slot and no chance to switch. If you miss the entry time, you wait a whole year for the next CLAT.

3. UG and PG are held together. CLAT UG is for the five year law course after Class 12. CLAT PG is for the LLM. Both run from 2 PM to 4 PM. If you are a working lawyer writing CLAT PG, plan your Sunday just like a school student would.

A good way to train for the afternoon slot is to solve CLAT previous year papers at 2 PM on Sundays, with a watch on your desk, just like the real day.

What time is CLAT exam today?

If today is 6 December 2026, the CLAT exam is from 2 PM to 4 PM. The centre gates open at 1 PM and the last entry is at 2.15 PM. Eligible PwD students finish at 4.40 PM. Before you step out, check that you have your printed admit card, an original photo ID card and two ball pens.

Has the CLAT exam time changed over the years?

No, it has stayed the same. CLAT 2025 was held on 1 December 2024 and CLAT 2026 was held on 7 December 2025. Both ran from 2 PM to 4 PM. CLAT 2027 keeps the same time. Because the time has not moved, the bell pattern from past years is a good guide to what you will hear this year.

CLAT Exam Time for PwD Students

PwD stands for persons with disabilities. Eligible PwD students write CLAT 2027 from 2 PM to 4.40 PM. That is 40 extra minutes on top of the normal two hours. The Consortium has written this on both its UG and PG instruction pages for 2027.

Who gets the extra 40 minutes? As per the rules the Consortium shared for the last exam, it works like this.

• Students with a disability of 40 percent or more, as defined under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, get the extra time.

• Students with a disability below 40 percent who find it hard to write also get it, but only if they have a medical certificate saying they need a scribe. A scribe is a person who writes the answers for you.

• You have to ask for a scribe on the application form itself. You cannot ask for one on exam day.

If you get the extra time, your exam day will feel a little different. The normal bells at 3.50 PM and 4 PM will still ring for everyone else, and other students will put their pens down. You keep writing. It sounds easy, but many students panic when the room goes quiet around them. So in your mock tests, practise ignoring those two bells. Think of 4.30 PM as your own ten minute warning, and use the last ten minutes, up to 4.40 PM, to check your answer sheet.

Carry your original disability certificate. Without it, the invigilator cannot let you keep writing after 4 PM.

CLAT Reporting Time and Gate Closing Time

Your admit card will show the exact reporting time for your centre. Based on how CLAT centres worked in the last exam, plan your day around these four times.

We suggest you reach by 1 PM, one full hour before the paper. That gives you time for the security check, finding your room and seat, and calming down before the paper comes to your desk.

Please do not think of 2.15 PM as extra time. In past years, students who came in between 2 PM and 2.15 PM were allowed to write, but they did not get any extra minutes. If you walk in at 2.12 PM, you still stop at 4 PM. Those 12 minutes are gone. That is about the time you need for a full set of maths questions. So think of 2 PM as your real deadline and 1 PM as your target.

When should you leave home?

Start from 1 PM and count backwards. Take your usual travel time and add at least 45 more minutes for Sunday traffic, parking, a wrong turn or a gate that is shut on one side of the campus. If your centre is 50 minutes away, leave home by 11.30 AM.

If you can, visit your centre a few days before the exam. Find the right gate, see where autos and cabs drop people off, and check how far the gate is from the building. Many of our students in Delhi NCR find that the address on the admit card points to a big campus with many gates, and the right one is hard to spot on a map.

CLAT Bell Timings and What Each Bell Means

Every CLAT centre follows a fixed bell pattern. A long bell marks a big moment, like the start or end of the paper. A short bell is a time check. This is the pattern centres followed in the last exam. Since the 2 PM to 4 PM time has not changed for 2027, you can expect the same bells.

Two bells matter more than the others.

• The 1.50 PM bell. The sealed booklet will sit on your desk for ten minutes. Do not break the seal early. Fill in the details the invigilator asks for, take a few slow breaths, and remind yourself which section you will start with.

• The 3.50 PM bell. This is your last chance to fill bubbles on the answer sheet. If you planned to mark answers in the booklet and copy them to the sheet at the end, this is where that plan falls apart. We explain a better way further down.

Your CLAT Exam Day, Hour by Hour

Since CLAT is in the afternoon, the morning can either set you up well or tire you out. This is the day we suggest to our students for 6 December 2026.

The idea is simple. On exam morning, do only what you have already done on your mock test days. A full mock at 10 AM will leave you tired by 2 PM. Two short practice sets will warm up your brain without wearing it out.

How to Use the Bells to Manage Your 120 Minutes

Most timing pages give you the bell list. Most time management pages tell you how many minutes to spend on each section. But none of them tell you where you should be in the paper when each bell rings. In the hall, that is the only thing you can actually check, because the bells are the one clock you can always hear.

The UG paper has five sections. The Consortium's paper pattern for CLAT 2027 gives these rough numbers.

You can read more about each section and the marking on our CLAT exam pattern page.

If you solve the paper in the order it is printed, this is the time plan we suggest at Clat Coaching.

Now match this plan with the bells. These are your check points.

• At the 2.30 PM bell, English should be done and you should be about five minutes into Current Affairs.

• At the 3 PM bell, Current Affairs should be done and you should be about two thirds of the way through Legal Reasoning.

• At the 3.30 PM bell, Legal Reasoning should be done and you should be most of the way through Logical Reasoning.

• At the 3.50 PM bell, maths should be done and you should already be going back over the questions you marked.

Say the 3 PM bell rings and you are still on Current Affairs. That means you are about ten minutes behind. Do not try to make up the time by rushing through the legal passages. Instead, leave the hardest legal passage, mark it, and come back to it at the end if you have time. A bell that tells you that you are late only helps if you decide right then what to leave out.

Change the order to suit your strengths

The printed order is not a rule. If Legal Reasoning is your best section, you can start with it while your mind is fresh and do English later. What matters is that you pick your order well before exam day, write down your own check points for that order, and practise it in at least five mock tests. Students who decide their order at 1.55 PM often lose ten minutes just thinking about it.

Fill the answer sheet as you go

Fill in the bubbles after each passage. Do not wait until the end of a section, and never wait until the end of the paper. When students try to copy 100 answers in the last ten minutes, they often skip one bubble by mistake, and then every answer below it moves one row down. When the 3.50 PM bell rings, your answer sheet should already be filled, except for the few questions you are still checking.

Time plan for PwD students

If you have 160 minutes, give each section about a third more time. Here is a plan that works. English 29 minutes, Current Affairs 17, Legal Reasoning 44, Logical Reasoning 36 and maths 13. Use the other 21 minutes to check the booklet at the start, go back to marked questions and check your answer sheet at the end.

Your check points move too. Aim to finish Current Affairs by about 2.50 PM, Legal Reasoning by about 3.35 PM, Logical Reasoning by about 4.10 PM and maths by about 4.22 PM. The 3.50 PM and 4 PM bells for other students will ring while you are in the middle of Logical Reasoning. That is exactly why you should practise ignoring them.

When Is CLAT Exam 2027?

The CLAT 2027 exam date is Sunday, 6 December 2026, from 2 PM to 4 PM. The Consortium of National Law Universities shared this date in a press note on 22 July 2026.

Students search for this in many ways, such as "when is CLAT 2027", "CLAT exam date 2027", "CLAT 2027 date" or just "CLAT date". The answer to all of them is the same. The exam is on the first Sunday of December 2026 and starts at 2 PM.

You might wonder why an exam in 2026 is called CLAT 2027. The year in the name is the year you join college. You write the exam in December 2026 and start at a National Law University in the 2027 session.

In which month is the CLAT exam conducted?

CLAT is held in December. The last three exams were all held on the first Sunday of December.

This pattern helps Class 12 students. Your board exams come in February and March, so a December CLAT gives you time to finish your law entrance preparation before full board revision begins.

CLAT exam kab hoga 2027?

CLAT 2027 ki pariksha 6 December 2026, Ravivar ko hogi. Exam ka samay dopahar 2 baje se 4 baje tak hai. Centre par 1 baje tak pahunch jaayein, kyunki 2.15 baje ke baad andar jaane nahi diya jaata. Registration ki aakhri tareekh 31 October 2026 hai.

What is the next CLAT exam date?

The next CLAT exam is CLAT 2027 on 6 December 2026. After that comes CLAT 2028. The Consortium usually announces the next exam date in July, so you can expect the CLAT 2028 date around July 2027. If the usual pattern holds, that exam will also be in December 2027.

CLAT 2027 Registration Date and Last Date

The CLAT 2027 registration last date is 31 October 2026. You have to submit the full form and pay the fee before 11.59 PM that night. We are writing this on 22 October, so you have nine days left.

Keep these points in mind before you submit.

• Fees. Rs 4,000 for General and OBC students. Rs 3,500 for SC, ST, BPL and PwD students. Old question papers cost Rs 500 more if you want them. You pay the bank charges, and the fee is not refunded.

• Things you cannot change later. Once you pay, you cannot change your course, your category or your BPL status. Check these twice.

• More than one form. If you send more than one form, only the last one counts. The fee for the earlier form is not returned.

• Scribe request. PwD students who need a scribe must ask for it in the same form.

• Do not wait for the last night. Payment sites slow down on the last day of almost every entrance exam. Try to finish at least three days early.

If you are searching for the "CLAT last date" or "CLAT registration last date" after 31 October 2026, check the notices on the Consortium website. Only the Consortium can change this date.

CLAT 2027 Important Dates

For the full list of dates, the steps to apply and the exam centres in Delhi NCR, read our CLAT 2027 exam date and registration guide.

CLAT Exam Date 2027 and Syllabus

Knowing the date is only half of your plan. The other half is knowing what the paper will look like at 2 PM. Many students search for the CLAT exam date 2027 syllabus together because they want to know if anything can still change before 6 December. It cannot. The Consortium has already shared the CLAT 2027 paper pattern, and it looks like this.

• The paper. 120 multiple choice questions in two hours. Every question is based on a short reading passage.

• Marks. You get 1 mark for each right answer and lose 0.25 marks for each wrong one. A question you leave blank gets zero.

• Sections. English Language, Current Affairs and General Knowledge, Legal Reasoning, Logical Reasoning and basic maths, in the shares shown in the time plan table above.

• Legal Reasoning. You do not need to know law already. Each passage gives you the legal rule, and you apply it to the facts in the question.

• Current Affairs. The passages come from the news, so read the news of the last 12 months or so.

For a topic by topic list of what to study in each section, read our CLAT 2027 syllabus guide.

Ties matter too. If two students get the same marks, the one with more marks in Legal Reasoning ranks higher. If that is also equal, the older student ranks higher. If they are still tied, a computer draw decides. This is one more reason not to rush through the legal section.

With about six weeks left before 6 December, the syllabus will not change. From here, your rank will go up through better accuracy and better timing, not through new chapters. Take two full mock tests a week, start them at 2 PM, and use the bell check points above.

What to Carry to the CLAT Exam Centre

Things to carry

• Your printed CLAT 2027 admit card

• One original photo ID card, such as Aadhaar, passport, PAN card, voter ID or driving licence

• Two blue or black ball pens

• A clear water bottle

• A regular watch with hands, so you can keep track of time yourself

• Your original disability certificate, if you are a PwD student

Things to leave at home or outside the hall

• Mobile phones, smart watches, fitness bands, earphones and calculators

• Bags, wallets, pouches and any written or printed paper

• Heavy jewellery and metal accessories

• Food, unless you need it for a medical reason

Wear simple clothes. Light, comfortable clothes without big buttons or badges, and easy shoes or sandals, will get you through the security check quickly. Every minute you spend at the gate is a minute you could have used to settle down before the 1.50 PM bell.

You will not be allowed to leave the hall until the exam is over. After 4 PM, keep your question booklet and admit card safe. You will need your booklet to check your answers against the answer key, and you may be asked to show the admit card at the time of admission.

Seven Timing Mistakes That Cost Students Marks

1. Practising only in the morning. Your body should get used to doing its best work at 2 PM. From now on, take every full mock test at 2 PM.

2. Reaching at 1.55 PM. You are on time, but you have missed the 25 minutes that help you calm down. The first passage you read in a rush is often the one you get wrong.

3. Thinking 2.15 PM is extra time. It is the last entry time, not a cushion. Every minute after 2 PM comes out of your own paper.

4. Wearing a digital watch. It will be taken away. Without a regular watch, you have to depend on the bells and the wall clock, which may be behind you.

5. Filling bubbles at the end. Fill the answer sheet after every passage. The 3.50 PM bell is a warning, not the time to start copying answers.

6. Getting stuck on one question. With 0.25 marks lost for every wrong answer, a blind guess usually costs you more than it gives. Mark the question, move on, and come back if you have time.

7. Changing your section order on the day. Fix your order at least four weeks before the exam and practise it. The exam hall is not the place to try something new.

What Happens After 4 PM

When the long bell rings at 4 PM, stop writing right away. Writing after the bell can be treated as cheating. Hand in your answer sheet when you are asked to, and keep your question booklet.

After the exam, the Consortium puts out the first answer key on its website and gives students a few days to raise objections. Then it shares the final answer key and the result. Counselling and seat allotment come after that. The Consortium announces each of these dates on consortiumofnlus.ac.in once the exam is over, so save the website and check it every day from 7 December.

Practise for the 2 PM Paper With Clat Coaching

At Clat Coaching, we hold full CLAT mock tests at the real exam time, 2 PM to 4 PM, at our Delhi NCR centres. The bells ring at the same times you will hear on 6 December. So you practise the timing, not just the questions.

You can join our CLAT coaching in Delhi at the centre closest to you, in Hauz Khas, GTB Nagar, Noida, Ghaziabad or Gurugram. If you live outside Delhi NCR, our online CLAT coaching lets you prepare from home.

Book a free demo class or a timed mock test. Call or WhatsApp us on +91 87505 81505, or email lawpreptutorialdelhi@gmail.com.

Our CLAT and AILET coaching fees are shown openly on our website, with no hidden charges.