LAT HEC – Law Admission Test in Pakistan – Syllabus & Prepration

Introduction to LAT

Law Admission Test (LAT) and Law Graduate Assessment Test (LAW GAT) are conducted by HEC, the former for admission in LLB 5 years and the later for the license for Practicing as an Advocate. In this piece of writing I am particularly concerned with the Law Admission Test (LAT). LAT basically is an entrance Examination which is held by Higher Education Commission. HEC Conducted 1^st LAT test on August 19 2018 as per the guidelines provided by the Supreme Court order dated March 6, 2018 passed in C.P.134/2012, for the candidates aspiring to get admission in LLB 5 years Program. Before March 6, 2018 NTS conduct National Aptitude Test (NAT) For Admissions in LLB 5 Years.

 Eligibility criteria for Law Admission Test (LAT)

• Students who have passed the higher Secondary school certificate (HSSC) or Equivalent.
• Students who have appeared in the final examination of HSSC or equivalent, waiting for their result.

It is mandatory to pass LAT Test in order to secure admission in LLB (five years under semester system) either in private or public sector institute.

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Why is LAT so crucial?

Prior to LAT, National Aptitude test (NAT) was the assessment test for Admission to secure admission in LLB five years just like other programs of Bachelors. There wasn’t any particular and specific test for the purpose. Later, it was held by the apex court of Pakistan that the test didn’t meet with the essentials to ascertain whether the students have the aptitude to study Law or not. Hence, it was the dire need of the hour that a special test must be introduced and that too wouldn’t be a novel example as the practice has been observed in the Legal Education department for years i.e. in our neighboring country India, CLAT is held for securing admission in LLB.

It’s a famous saying that

A lawyer must know something about everything and everything about something.

In order to scrutinize the students who have got the potential and spark to perform well in the legal profession, LAT has been designed in such a manner as it test the general knowledge and basic language skills of the aspirants. Further details regarding the test are as

 Law Admission Test (LAT) primarily comprises of written as well as objective portion and which includes questions from

English, Pakistan Affairs, Islamiyat, and general Knowledge while if we look towards National Aptitude test (NAT) there are questions from Verbal Ability, Analytical Reason and Quantitative Reasoning. The subject of the LAT focuses on assessing the General Ability of the Students for the field of law, that’s why it was preferred over National Aptitude test (NAT).

LAT Syllabus

Test Pattern for LAT is discussed bellow

• Written portion consist of 25 Marks which includes two questions, Essay and Personal Statement
• MCQ’s Portion consist of 75 Marks 
• ENGLISH MCQ’s 20 Marks
• GENERAL KNOWLEDGE MCQ’s 20 Marks
• PAKISTAN AFFAIRS MCQ’s 10 Marks
• ISLAMIC STUDIES MCQ’s 10 Marks
• URDU MCQ’s 10 Marks
• MATH MCQ’s 5 Marks

Passing Marks for LAT Are 50 out of 100

ESSAY AND PERSONAL STATEMENT

Written portion consist of 25 marks in which a student have to produce an essay of 200 words (Maximum) in any language Either English or Urdu and a personal statement with same number of words. Personal statement is Like a Resume in which you have to describe yourself on one page. Following  are the steps while writing personal statement

• Introduction (Which Include Your basic Academic Qualification and Achievements)
• Purpose (Why you want to do LLB)
• Your Skills
• Past  Experience (Related to the fields if any)  
• Uniqueness of Your Personality (Like You Participated in various co curricular Activities)

While writing written portion of LAT make sure to give proper spacing to both of them, 200 Words for Essay and 200 Words for Personal Statement because only two sheets were given to the students for writing the written portion.

MCQ’s Section.

This section is the main part of this Entrance Examination contain 75 MCQ’s from 6 Different subjects like ENGLISH, G.K and Pak study so you need to learn about the basics of all these subjects. In Pakistan Affairs you have to focus primarily upon the era of pre-partition and some important events as The Lahore Resolution, The  Allahabad Address. While In English section your main focus should be on Synonyms/Antonyms and Preposition. Math include Basic Math like percentage and Ratio Math.

How To Prepare For The Test

Most of the Students consult books of various publishers for the preparation of LAT test, but majority of the books written for the preparation of Law Admission Test the writers mainly beat about the bush and these books contain irrelevant material. The aspirants, therefore mustn’t rely upon any kind of such book or Notes.  If somebody desires to make a decent score in Law Admission Test then he must prepare comprehensively like he should make your own notes, seek help from the past papers and study from credible sources