2026 CLAT Cut-Offs : Predicting Safe Scores with Past-Year Trends

1. Why fuss over cut-offs?

CLAT Cut-Offs decide whether the dream NLU name ends up on your admit card or your wish-list. They’re simply the last All-India Rank (AIR) offered a seat in a counselling round. Track them over a couple of cycles and you get two priceless insights:

• A trendline – is competition rising faster than seats?
• A safety buffer – how many marks above last year’s closing score keeps you out of the “wait-list panic” zone?

Past data says the buffer has shrunk from ~6 marks to ~3 marks for top NLUs since the pattern moved to 120 questions (2024).

2. Past-year closing ranks at a glance

*“Safe rank” = highest rank likely to convert in Round 1 if 2026 paper difficulty mirrors the 2025 level.
†Safe marks derived from CLAT 2025 marks-vs-rank curve.

How the table was built

• 2024 closing ranks: Careers360 Round-1 list (general category). Careers360 Law
• 2025 closing ranks: Careers360 Round-1 list (general category). Careers360 Law
• Marks equivalents use the 2025 “marks vs rank” grid (98 marks ≈ AIR ≤ 200, etc.). Careers360 Law

3. Decoding the trendline for CLAT Cut-Offs

1. Plateau at the top – The NLSIU/NALSAR band barely shifted because both added 15 seats in 2025, absorbing rank pressure.
2. Mid-table squeeze – NLUs ranked 5-12 saw a 7-13 % spike in closing ranks; applicants hedged preferences once top seats filled early.
3. Rural-campus NLUs steady – HP, Jabalpur, Agartala changes < 3 %; location still caps demand.

Take-away: competition inches up, but seat expansion offsets spikes. Expect a 2-4 % upward drift again in 2026 – that’s roughly a 1-2 mark bump in safe scores.

4. The “Safe Score” formula you can copy

Safe score = (Last-year closing marks) + (⅔ × paper difficulty delta) + 2-mark buffer

• Closing marks estimate – Convert 2025 closing rank to marks (e.g., AIR 100 ≈ 105 marks).
• Difficulty delta – If Consortium tweaks passage complexity (say overall accuracy falls 5 %), adjust marks by –3.
• 2-mark buffer – Covers tie-breakers & counselling withdrawals.

Example for NALSAR (Gen):
2025 AIR 150 ≈ 100 marks → difficulty expected similar → 100 + 0 + 2 = 102. Round up: Target 103.

5. Category-wise safe scores (quick look)

(Scores rounded off; assumes 120-mark paper and >90 % question parity with 2025.) CLAT Cut-Offs

6. How to stay above the line

1. Mock-test reverse-engineering – Analyse where last 20 marks leak. Plug with micro-drills (20-minute sets).
2. Current affairs flash-cycles – One issue → law link → case name loop daily beats cramming.
3. Quant in 18 minutes – Practice two DI sets + one arithmetic single in that time box; 9 sure marks.
4. Legal reasoning templates – Build fact → principle → mini-ratio notes; speeds up passage inference by 20 sec.

Need structured hand-holding? Check our in-depth CLAT programme for Students

7. FAQs – CLAT Cut-Offs

Q1. Will CLAT 2026 remain a 120-question test?
Consortium minutes (May 2025) say “no structural change” for 2026 UG paper; only minor calibration in passage mix.

Q2. What score equals AIR 100 in an “easy” paper?
If accuracy averages 5 % above 2025, AIR 100 may drop to ~102 marks. Adjust your target after the official answer key.

Q3. Do added EWS seats lower general cut-offs?
Not significantly; 2025 saw +10 EWS seats across NLUs yet Gen closing ranks slid only 2-4 spots at the top.

Q4. How many marks guarantee any NLU?
Historical data shows Gen candidates with ~70 marks landed Round-3 seats in Odisha/Kochi campuses.

Q5. Where can I get last-year allotment PDFs?
Direct download from the Consortium site’s “Allotment Lists” section.

Sources

1. 2025 Round-1 closing ranks, all NLUs – Careers360 article Careers360 Law
2. Marks vs Rank matrix 2025 – Careers360 analysis Careers360 Law
3. 2024 Round-1 closing ranks – Careers360 archive

Lakshmanan Annamalai Founder

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Mathematics (algebra, geometry, calculus, etc.) AI tools in education Educational technology tools Digital content creation for STEM education