CLAT 2026 AIR 1 Geetali Gupta "I am a Bona Fide Toprankers LegalEdge Student" [Check Full Story]

For every CLAT aspirant who has ever stared at a mock score and thought, “Is this even working?”, this update hits different. LegalEdge student Geetali Gupta has secured CLAT 2026 AIR 1 with 112.75 marks and has been allotted a seat at NLSIU Bengaluru.

Geetali Gupta, enrolled in a one-year integrated legal programme at LegalEdge, shared that her journey started early—back in school—because she genuinely enjoyed debating, reasoning, and persuading people to choose what’s right. Like many students, she didn’t begin with “perfect preparation” from day one. In Class 11, she tested the waters with a few mocks, but real momentum came later when she decided to get serious and build discipline.

CLAT 2026 AIR 1 Geetali Gupta says, “What makes this even more special: I prepared only with LegalEdge. No other institute, no parallel coaching—just one system, followed consistently.”

Securing AIR 1 in CLAT 2026 is not just about intelligence—it’s about structure, feedback, repetition, and discipline. In this exclusive conversation, Harsh Gagrani interviews Geetali Gupta, the CLAT 2026 Rank 1 achiever and an exclusive LegalEdge student from the LegalEdge One-Year Program. She speaks about how her preparation evolved from light practice in Class 11 to a focused, consistent journey powered by LegalEdge mentorship, regular mocks, mock analysis, and daily current affairs reading.

If you’re a CLAT aspirant aiming for 2027/2028/2029, this interview gives you a realistic template of how a top rank is built—with the right strategy, the right guidance, and a preparation ecosystem like LegalEdge.

Interview: Harsh Gagrani [Co-Founder, LegalEdge] X Geetali Gupta [CLAT 2026 AIR 1]

Harsh Gagrani: Hi Geetali, how are you?
Geetali: I’m good, sir. How are you?

Harsh Gagrani: All well. And congratulations on getting a great score and a great rank in CLAT 2026.
Geetali: Thank you so much, sir.

Harsh Gagrani: How does it feel?
Geetali: The feeling is actually complicated to explain. On one hand, it feels surreal—like I can’t believe I’m getting such a rank. But on the other hand, I’m equally happy for the rank and for all the efforts I put in. So yes, it’s unbelievable as well as happy.

Harsh Gagrani: That’s great. So which LegalEdge batch were you enrolled in, Geetali?
Geetali: I was enrolled in the Droppers / Warriors batch—the Gold one.

Harsh Gagrani: Okay. When did you decide on law as a career, and when did you start preparing for CLAT?
Geetali: I decided back in 9th grade that I would do law because there’s one thing I love—debating, and persuading people to do what’s right (according to me). So I decided in 9th grade that I would pursue law. And of course, CLAT and AILET were the two exams that could get me into a good college.

I started preparing in 11th itself—like I started giving some mocks, but it was only one mock a month. It wasn’t very concentrated or focused preparation. So 11th went away with minimal studies. Sometimes I studied one or two legal topics, sometimes I practised a bit of quant, but it wasn’t focused. It was more like—if I did it, I did it; if I didn’t, I didn’t.

But in 12th I decided—no, now I have to do it properly. So, around January to March (start of 12th), I started focusing on GK. And the things I had done in 11th—like the main static legal concepts such as Torts and Contract—I had covered the basics and revised them almost completely by mid-12th. In 12th, I was fully focused on CLAT.

Harsh Gagrani: And you enrolled with LegalEdge around February, right? February 2025?
Geetali: Yes, sir, that’s when I started.

Harsh Gagrani: When you started, which section felt the weakest? And by the end, did it stay the same or change?
Geetali: In the beginning, my weak section was GK because in the initial months, I didn’t really understand how to do GK. I mainly read topics I liked—like politics-related stuff or national issues—and for other topics, it was like, if I read it, then fine, otherwise not. I didn’t read one-liners at all. But the n in mocks, many questions came from one-liners and related research topics, and I couldn’t do them.

So one part was GK, and the other was Legal, because picking out principles from a passage and applying them to the given facts was difficult. But towards the end, Legal kind of became my strong section, and Logical became a bit tough for me, because I used to do Logical after Legal, and by the time I reached Logical, it would get frustrating. So by the end, Logical felt difficult for me, and GK was still there as a challenge.

Harsh Gagrani: Did you read the newspaper daily?
Geetali: Yes. It was like—no matter what happens, I have to read the newspaper daily.

Harsh Gagrani: Approximately how many mocks did you write in the last year?
Geetali: There’s no count, sir. I gave last year’s mocks, even older mocks. I repeated the same mocks two to three times as well—so there’s no fixed number.

Harsh Gagrani: For someone who is just starting prep, what were your mock scores initially, mid-way, and closer to CLAT?
Geetali: In the beginning, my scores were around 60, 70, 80. I remember my lowest score was 60—so usually between 60 to 80. Mid-way, they dipped a bit and then started going up again—so again around 70 to 90. In the last 2–3 months, thankfully, my score didn’t go below 80.

Harsh Gagrani: Did you ever face a phase where scores dropped, and morale went down for days or weeks? If yes, how did you deal with it?
Geetali: In terms of scores, sometimes one mock would go bad, or two to four alternate mocks would be bad, but not so frequently that a whole month was ruined.

But yes—around May, June, July, even up to August—my ranks weren’t that good. When the final rank used to come online and offline, it would be somewhere in the 100s or 200s, and that upset me—because after putting in so much effort, the rank still wasn’t good. Rank matters a lot.

My teachers advised me to focus only on my work because anything can happen on exam day. Someone who’s doing very well can mess up, and someone who’s doing poorly can do very well. So I sidelined ranks and scores and focused on analysing what’s going right and what’s going wrong. And then it depends on the final day.

Harsh Gagrani: Which teachers did you follow/stay connected with? Who helped you?
Geetali: I was mostly connected to the Bhopal centre—Utkarsh sir, Saurabh sir, Mayur sir, Sukanya ma’am, Shazli ma’am—everyone from the Bhopal centre. Apart from that, I used to come to the Chandigarh centre sometimes, so Shitij sir and Nidhi ma’am also helped.

Harsh Gagrani: Were you enrolled anywhere else in any other classroom program?
Geetali: No, sir.

Harsh Gagrani: What was your parents’ first reaction? How happy are they?
Geetali: It goes without saying—they are extremely happy. I found out later, but they told me they weren’t even expecting less than 100 because in AIOMs, my rank never went below 100.

In AIOMs, there are selected students, but in the actual exam, it’s around 70,000–75,000 candidates, so there’s a wide gap. Still, because I never went under 100 in AIOMs, when I opened the final result, it was shocking. I opened it quite late—calls had already started coming that my result was good. When I opened it at home with everyone around me, I couldn’t believe it was my rank and my score.

Estimating from answer keys is different, but seeing the actual result felt like—okay, everything is done now. Now it’s just happiness. I don’t have to study for CLAT anymore. So obviously, I was very happy, and everyone was happy. And yes, my mom was very, very happy—dads aren’t as expressive—but both were extremely happy.

Harsh Gagrani: Tell us 2–3 consistent habits from the past year that helped you get such a rank and score.
Geetali: First: reading the newspaper daily. No matter how long—read it. Even if it’s just 30 minutes, even if I only read a few topics or read them lightly, reading was necessary. It gave me a feeling of consistency that, yes, I studied GK today. It will add on. Knowledge never goes to waste—whatever you read will be useful.

Second: doing something CLAT-related daily—either giving a mock, analysing a mock, practising questions, or revising any topic—so that the habit doesn’t break.

Harsh Gagrani: Any message for future CLAT aspirants (CLAT 2027, 2028, 2029)?
Geetali: Do your work well—the result will come. And just be consistent.

Harsh Gagrani: Awesome. Congratulations again on a great rank and score in 2026, and all the very best for your future endeavours.
Geetali: Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.

Geetali Gupta Journey At Glance

Phase	What Geetali Did	LegalEdge-Style Actionable Takeaway
Class 9	Chose law as a career (interest in debating/persuasion)	Start with clarity, then build consistency through a planned system
Class 11	Light prep; one mock a month; minimal legal/quant practice	Early foundation is fine; serious growth comes with a structured routine
Jan–Mar (Class 12)	GK focus begins; revises static legal basics (Torts/Contract)	Shift to disciplined daily habits + revision loop
Feb 2025	Joins LegalEdge Droppers/Warriors Gold (One-Year Program)	Mentorship + test practice ecosystem improves execution
Final Months	Mocks + analysis daily; score stabilises (80+)	Consistency compounding + error reduction = score stability

Mock Score Progression

Stage	Typical Mock Score Range	What It Signals
Early Phase	60–80	Normal starting band; build fundamentals + routine
Mid Phase	70–90	Fluctuations happen; focus on the analysis and improvement loop
Last 2–3 Months	80+	Stability + confidence; execution becomes consistent

Weak-to-Strong Section Shift

Section	Earlier Challenge	How It Evolved (LegalEdge Approach)
GK	Selective reading; skipped one-liners; inconsistency	Daily newspaper habit created consistency and retained learning over time
Legal Reasoning	Principal extraction + application felt difficult	Practice + revision turned it into a strong scoring section
Logical Reasoning	Manageable earlier	Became tougher later due to fatigue—order & stamina management matters

Insights (What CLAT Aspirants Can Learn from LegalEdge AIR 1)

• LegalEdge-style consistency wins: Geetali’s daily newspaper + daily CLAT task ensured momentum, even on low-motivation days.
• Mocks are not just attempts—mocks are training: repeating mocks multiple times builds pattern recognition and reduces avoidable errors.
• Don’t overthink predicted ranks: Geetali improved when she focused on analysis instead of being controlled by rank calculators.
• Your strengths can change: Legal grew from weak to strong—proof that consistent practice can flip your section performance.
• Mentors matter: teacher feedback from LegalEdge centres helped her stay steady through the 100s/200s rank phase.

Conclusion

Geetali Gupta’s CLAT 2026 AIR 1 journey is a clear example of how a structured ecosystem like LegalEdge can turn potential into performance. With consistent newspaper reading, daily CLAT practice, disciplined mock repetition, and mentor-backed analysis, she built the habits that compound into top ranks. Her final message is simple and powerful: do the work daily, stay consistent, and the result will come.