Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET 2026 (Exam-Day Edition)

Overview: If you’ve prepared for months, solved hundreds of mocks, and revised everything you possibly could, the last thing you want is an exam-day slip that ruins your performance. Students often assume that once preparation is done, the battle is won. But ask any topper, and they’ll tell you that exam day is where most real blunders happen.

That’s exactly why this guide is dedicated to the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET only on exam day. No preparation tips. No theory. Just clear, practical, real mistakes and how you can steer clear of them when it matters the most.

Whether you’re appearing for CLAT or AILET, take a deep breath and read this carefully. These tiny errors can cost huge marks, and the goal here is to make sure you don’t fall into the same traps.

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1. Leaving Home Late and Reaching the Centre in Panic Mode

This is the first in the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET because it happens every single year.

Students underestimate traffic, can’t find the exact gate, or arrive barely minutes before the exam begins. The moment panic kicks in, accuracy plummets.

When your mind is unsettled, you misread questions, skip easy ones, and lose command over your timing. And since both papers are speed-heavy, reaching stress is one of the biggest CLAT Exam Day Mistakes you must avoid.

Solution: Visit the centre a day earlier, plan buffer time, and arrive at least one hour before reporting time. A calm mind is half the battle won.

Read more: CLAT 2026 Exam Day Instructions

2. Carrying the Wrong Documents or Forgetting Mandatory Items

Every topper silently agrees that this is one of the Common CLAT mistakes to avoid and one of the Top 10 Mistakes Students Make in AILET.

Many aspirants forget their admit card, photo ID, or required photographs. Some carry photocopies instead of originals. Some even hold an outdated ID that doesn’t match their admit card details.

This tiny oversight leads to unnecessary stress right at the gate.

Solution: The night before the exam, keep everything, admit card, ID proof, photos, stationery, in a transparent folder. Check it thrice. Sleep only after you’re fully satisfied.

Read more: CLAT 2026 Answer Key

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3. Poor Time Management Because of Overthinking the First Few Questions

This is one of the 10 Mistakes CLAT aspirants make even when they’re well-prepared. The first passage doesn’t go well, or the first logical reasoning set feels tricky, and suddenly the whole paper feels overwhelming.

Students waste 15–20 minutes trying to “fix” the first few questions instead of moving ahead. That’s how they lose marks from easier sections.

This is also a typical entry in the Top 10 Mistakes Students Make in AILET, where the paper is especially known for tight timing.

Solution: If a question doesn’t make sense in 45–60 seconds, skip it. Keep moving. Mark it for revisit and return later.

Read more: CLAT 2026 Exam Analysis

4. Not Reading Instructions Carefully on the OMR or Screen

Every year, many students lose marks not because they were weak but because they didn’t read the updated instructions well.

Examples:

• Marking two bubbles by mistake
• Missing a new rule
• Ignoring revised guidelines
• Misreading negative marking details

This sounds simple, yet it’s among the Common Mistakes to Avoid While Preparing for AILET, because ignoring instructions becomes a habit during practice.

Solution: Use the first two minutes wisely. Read all instructions carefully. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Read more: AILET 2026 Last Minute Exam Tips

5. Random Guessing Out of Nervousness

If CLAT or AILET rewarded lucky guesses, everyone would score 150+. But reality is different. Marking answers blindly is one of the most damaging CLAT Exam Day Mistakes.

A sudden panic attack, a passage you can’t decode, or a complicated legal reasoning paragraph can tempt you to guess randomly. But with negative marking in both exams, that’s a dangerous move.

Solution: Educated elimination is fine. Blind guessing is not. If you can rule out 2 options logically, go ahead. If not, let it go.

Read more: AILET 2026 Answer Key

6. Mismanaging the OMR Sheet or Marking Answers Too Quickly

Students often underestimate how important neat OMR handling is. This ranks high in the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET because even brilliant students lose marks simply due to:

• Incorrect bubbling
• Misaligned answers
• Skipping a question accidentally
• Filling in an answer in the wrong row

In AILET, especially, this is one of the Top 10 Mistakes Students Make in AILET, because the exam is OMR-based and any mistake is irreversible.

Solution: After every passage or section, match the question number with the OMR number. Keep a slow and steady bubbling rhythm.

Read more: CLAT 2026 Result

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7. Spending Too Much Time on Legal Reasoning

Legal reasoning is the heartbeat of both exams. But overspending time here is one of the most frequent 10 Mistakes CLAT aspirants make.

Students assume that legal reasoning carries “more importance,” so they keep digging into complex passages. But the exam doesn’t award extra marks for effort. Time lost here harms your performance in English, GK, and Logical Reasoning.

Solution: Give each legal reasoning question equal time as the others. If it’s too heavy, skip and return later.

8. Panicking When GK Questions Look Unexpected

GK in both CLAT and AILET is unpredictable. Some years feel easy; some feel alien. Panicking, however, is not an option.

Many students freeze after seeing unfamiliar GK questions, which disrupts the flow of the entire paper. It’s a classic example of Common CLAT mistakes to avoid because toppers train themselves to stay emotionally neutral.

Solution: Treat GK like a rapid-fire round. If you know the answer, mark it if you don’t, skip it instantly and move on. No emotional attachment.

Read more: CLAT 2026 Counselling

9. Ignoring the Sectional Smart Strategy on the Final Day

Even students who have a perfect strategy during mocks suddenly abandon it on exam day because of excitement or fear.

They start attempting sections in a different order, switch their timing pattern, or change their method of elimination. This shift can cost heavy marks.

This is why it repeatedly appears in lists like Common Mistakes to Avoid While Preparing for AILET, because building a strategy is pointless if you don’t follow it during the exam.

Solution: Don’t experiment on exam day. Stick to the strategy that worked best during mocks.

Read more: AILET 2026 Result

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10. Losing Focus in the Last 15 Minutes

The final minutes of CLAT and AILET are make-or-break.

Many students:

• rush
• panic
• change previously marked answers
• Try to solve too many questions at once
• misread the simplest lines

This last-minute chaos is one of the most easily avoidable entries in the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET.

Surprisingly, toppers often say that the last 10–15 minutes gave them the extra 6–10 marks that brought them into the top AIR ranks.

Solution:

• Use the final minutes carefully.
• Focus on easy questions left behind.
• Recheck OMR alignment.
• Avoid changing answers unless you’re absolutely sure.

Quick Recap of the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET (All Exam-Day)

Here is the full list again for clarity:

1. Reaching the exam centre late
2. Forgetting or mismanaging documents
3. Spending too long on early questions
4. Skipping instructions
5. Random guessing due to panic
6. OMR mishandling
7. Over-focusing on legal reasoning
8. Panicking at unexpected GK
9. Changing your pre-planned strategy
10. Losing control in the final minutes

Each of these looks tiny, but together they contribute to the majority of exam-day score drops. Avoiding these errors alone puts you ahead of thousands.

Conclusion

You’ve spent months preparing, solving mocks, analysing mistakes, and building stamina. Don’t let exam-day missteps undo all the good work. A calm mind, clear strategy, and disciplined execution can make a massive difference.

The Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in CLAT & AILET discussed here aren’t rare mistakes. They happen every year to thousands of aspirants. But they don’t have to happen to you.

Take this guide seriously. Treat it like a checklist. Use it on the morning of your exam. And trust your preparation, you’re far more ready than you think.