Analysing the GK section of CLAT mocks

Most aspirants look at their GK score in a mock, feel pleased or annoyed, and move on to the next mock. That wastes most of what the mock could teach. GK is the section where analysis pays off fastest, because almost every wrong answer points to a specific, fixable gap: a fact you never noted, a fact you noted but forgot, or a passage line you misread.

This guide gives you a review method that takes about twenty minutes per mock, and then demonstrates it on a sample passage.

Why GK analysis is different

In Legal Reasoning or Logical Reasoning, a wrong answer usually means a reasoning error, and fixing it takes practice. In GK, a wrong answer usually means a missing fact, and fixing it takes one line in your notes. That makes GK analysis quick and its returns immediate. The catch is that you must sort the errors correctly. A fact you never studied needs a new note. A fact you studied but forgot needs revision, not another note. A misread passage needs a change in how you read.

Step 1: break down the score

Start with four numbers: questions in the section, attempted, correct and wrong. Suppose a mock's GK section has 28 questions and an aspirant attempts 24, getting 17 right and 7 wrong.

• Score: 17 − (7 × 0.25) = 17 − 1.75 = 15.25.
• Accuracy: 17 ÷ 24 ≈ 71%.
• Left unattempted: 28 − 24 = 4.

Accuracy below about 75% in GK usually means too many guesses or too many near-miss facts. A very high accuracy with many questions left usually means too much caution. Keep both numbers in your tracker.

Step 2: classify every error

Go through each wrong answer and each unattempted question, and give it one of these labels.

Now count. Suppose the aspirant's 7 wrong answers split as 3 A, 2 B, 1 C and 1 E, and of the 4 unattempted, 2 were genuinely unknown and 2 were facts they had studied but did not trust.

What this tells the aspirant:

• Three coverage gaps (type A). Check whether they share a category. If all three were international, that category needs attention in daily reading.
• Two revision gaps (type B), plus two unattempted facts they half knew. Four marks lost to forgetting means the revision cycle is too loose. See revising a year of current affairs.
• One misread and one blind guess: small numbers, but both are free marks to recover.

Step 3: audit your guesses

Mark every answer you were not sure of when you gave it. Then split them into guesses made after eliminating at least two options, and blind guesses.

Suppose the aspirant made 8 guesses after eliminating two options and got 4 right: 4 − (4 × 0.25) = +3. They also made 4 blind guesses and got 1 right: 1 − (3 × 0.25) = +0.25.

The informed guesses earned three marks. The blind guesses earned a quarter of a mark and took time. On average a blind guess among four options gains only 1/4 × 1 − 3/4 × 0.25 = 0.25 − 0.1875 = 0.0625 marks, too little to justify the risk and the time. For the full arithmetic, see negative marking in CLAT.

Step 4: check your time

GK should be the fastest section. Note how many minutes you spent on it. A reasonable target is about 30–40 seconds per question on average, which for 28 questions is roughly 14 to 19 minutes. If you are well above that, find out why: rereading whole passages, or dwelling on background questions you do not know.

Step 5: update your notes, carefully

Add every type A fact that belongs to a recurring topic. Star every type B fact. Write the confusing pair for every type D.

One caution: mock keys contain errors, and some mocks are built on outdated facts. Before a new fact goes into your notes, check it against a reliable source such as an official website or a major newspaper. The guide on CLAT mock tests covers choosing a mock series.

A tracker across mocks

After five or six mocks, the columns show your pattern. A steadily high B column says revise more. A high A column in one category says read more in that area. A high C column says the problem is reading, not knowledge.

Demonstration: reviewing one passage

Here is a sample passage, followed by a review of a hypothetical aspirant's answers.

Parliament is not always in session, but the need for a law can arise at any time. The Constitution therefore allows the President, under Article [1], to promulgate an ordinance at any time except when both Houses are in session, if the President is satisfied that circumstances exist that make immediate action necessary. The President acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers. An ordinance has the same force as an Act of Parliament, but it cannot do anything an Act could not do.

The power is temporary by design. An ordinance must be laid before both Houses when they reassemble, and it ceases to operate six weeks after they reassemble, unless both Houses pass resolutions disapproving it earlier. Because the Constitution does not allow a gap of more than six months between two sessions of Parliament, an ordinance that is never replaced by a law has a limited life.

Governments have sometimes tried to extend that life by promulgating the same ordinance again and again. In 1987, examining a state that had re-promulgated ordinances repeatedly for years without placing them before the legislature, the Supreme Court called the practice a fraud on the Constitution. A larger bench confirmed the principle in 2017, adding that the duty to lay an ordinance before the legislature is mandatory and that the satisfaction behind an ordinance is open to judicial review.

Q1. Which Article fills [1]?

(a) 72 (b) 110 (c) 123 (d) 213

Q2. According to the passage, when does an ordinance cease to operate?

(a) Six months after it is promulgated.
(b) Six weeks after the Houses reassemble, unless disapproved earlier.
(c) When the President's term ends.
(d) One year after it is promulgated.

Q3. A state Governor's power to issue ordinances is in Article:

(a) 213 (b) 356 (c) 161 (d) 200

Q4. Which of the following is supported by the passage?

(a) An ordinance can be issued while both Houses are in session.
(b) Repeated re-promulgation without placing ordinances before the legislature has been held a fraud on the Constitution.
(c) Courts can never examine the satisfaction behind an ordinance.
(d) An ordinance has less legal force than an Act of Parliament.

Q5. Roughly what is the longest an ordinance can last without being replaced by a law?

(a) Six weeks (b) Six months (c) About six months and six weeks (d) One year

Answers:

1. (c) Article 123. Article 72 is the pardoning power, 110 defines a Money Bill, and 213 is the Governor's ordinance power.
2. (b) Stated in the second paragraph.
3. (a) Background. Article 161 is the Governor's pardoning power and 200 concerns assent to state bills; both are traps for anyone who knows only that the answer is "a Governor Article".
4. (b) Stated in the third paragraph. (c) contradicts it; (d) contradicts the first paragraph.
5. (c) An inference. An ordinance issued just after a session ends can run until the next session, at most six months away, and then for six more weeks.

The review. Suppose the aspirant answered Q1 correctly, chose (a) for Q2, chose (c) for Q3, left Q4 and got Q5 right.

• Q2 is type C. The passage says six weeks; the aspirant carried "six months" over from the sentence on sessions. The fix is reading, not notes.
• Q3 is type D. The aspirant knew it was a Governor's Article but confused 161 with 213. The fix is a pair in the notes: "123 President, 213 Governor: ordinances. 72 President, 161 Governor: pardons."
• Q4 left is a confidence problem. The answer was in the passage. Reading questions should almost never be left.

Score on this set: 2 right, 2 wrong, 1 left, so 2 − 0.5 = 1.5 out of 5. All three lost marks were recoverable, and none needed new facts.

What to do next

• After your next mock, classify every GK error as A to E before you look at any other section.
• Start the tracker and fill it for every mock.
• Verify every new fact from a mock before adding it to your notes.
• Read common current affairs mistakes next.