Diyasha Basak, a 1-year student in CLATapult, fetched an AIR 59 in the AILET exam. Her journey is truly incredible because she is from Bhubaneswar and due to a dearth of good Coaching places there, she would travel to Kolkata every alternate weekend to attend classes with CLATapult.
In this Interview, she talks about her amazing journey through this tumultuous year that she spent working for the exam.
1. What prompted you to choose law?
After my 12th boards, I was clueless as to what I’d do for my future. I thought of taking up law seriously then. The exam pattern of CLAT “seemed” easy back then (trust me, its not) and that’s basically why I started my law prep.
Law is one of the few fields where you can argue for what you believe in. You can choose whichever side of the story you want to and if your argument is sound and you’ve put in hard work and effort, your side wins. This flexibility of opinion isn’t available in other fields like engineering or medical (I mean, you won’t get an option of cutting out either a person’s heart or his kidney)
This made me like law as a career.
2. When did you start preparing for the exam? Take us through how you prepared for each subject in CLAT and AILET.
I started for my initial preparation in 12th but because of my boards, I wasn’t serious about it. I started seriously preparing for law only after my 12th boards.
The main key to getting a good score is practicing ALL the subjects REGULARLY, irrespective of your strength or weakness in the subject.
I was very weak it GK, so static and current affairs took up a lot of my time. I wrote down current affairs everyday from websites like Jagran Josh and GK Today.
For logic, practicing regularly for an hour from books like MK Pandey and RS Agarwal was enough as that increases your speed as well as accuracy.
Legal had to be studied(legal GK) and practiced(legal reasoning) on a regular basis from different books because it was a new subject all together for me. The CLATapult material is great for legal reasons especially as it covers ALL the important case laws in the form of questions which makes it a lot easier to remember. Not just that, it has lots of other questions which almost covers the entire aspect of legal reasoning and GK.
Maths and English being my favourite subjects and my strengths, I kind of went easy on them which is not a good thing to do because you lose touch and your speed decreases. A great book for maths is Quicker Maths by M Tyra. It covers everything you require for maths. The CLATapult material and R S Agarwal for English is more than enough.
And yes, practicing past years papers is a must.
3. You had taken a year off before AILET 2017. How did you go about that year in between?
In my first AILET attempt, I got 65 marks. On seeing this, I knew that I wanted to clear this particular exam next year.
So I dropped an year for law, joined CLATapult and started my preparation. My parents helped me and supported me a lot in this, as I had to travel from Orissa to Calcutta twice a month for my classes. And in the end, it was all worth it.
4. Coming to your incredible AILET score – what was your initial reaction to it?
My exam went well, but I didn’t expect this good an all India rank. On seeing my rank, I was really happy.
5. How did CLATapult contribute to this?
CLATapult was basically the reason behind this. The materials were very comprehensive and efficient, covered almost every topic and had more than enough questions for everyday practice too.
And the teachers here were a great support. Anzar sir was always ready to help and advice us on our preparation. Anjanesh sir’s Maths classes were amazing. Shreshth sir and Kamil sir were always there to help us with strategies on how to crack CLAT. Arbina, Ishani, Amrita ma’m’s classes were a great help. And Mustafa and Siddharth Sir were practically available all the time to clear our doubts. So yes, CLATapult is basically the reason why I’ve come this far today.
6. Which skills and abilities do you consider important to do well in CLAT and AILET?
Having a calm and composed mind DURING the exam is the most important thing here. And, of course, practicing the entire year so that you don’t lose touch with the subjects. Revision helps a lot too. Revising subjects like GK and Maths help in improving your knowledge and accuracy. And last but not the least, belief in oneself is immensely helpful.
7. Your strengths and weaknesses – how did you deal with them?
My weakness was GK. So I spent a lot of time on it. I made sure I wrote down the current affairs each day and revised it from time to time. Whatever material I got related to current affairs, I made sure I was done with it.
For static GK, completing Person wasn’t possible so teachers at CLATapult helped us by marking out the relevant areas which we had to study which in turn helped me a lot.
8. Mock tests – useful or over-hyped? Which ones did you take and how did you go about them?
Useful. Definitely. I took the CLATapult mocks and they were very helpful. They help you figure out your strategy for the main exam and show you the parts you’re lacking in.
Mock tests are undoubtedly the most important part of your CLAT preparation.
9. Any words of advice for the aspirants?
There may be doubts in your mind and it might make you depressed, I’ve been through that, but in the end after you see your results, it’ll be worth it.
1 thought on “<b>AILET AIR 59</b> Diyasha Basak : The documentation of an incredible journey”
Your insights are really helpful ma’am !????