The Cambridge Law Test (CLT) is a one hour exam which candidates who have been called to interview must undertake. It will usually be sat on the same day as your interviews and is completely different from the LNAT which other universities require. There are several things you must do in order to prepare for the CLT, I have chosen to focus on 5 key things.
Firstly, look at the past papers. The format of this test changed a couple of years ago. Now applicants will only be required to write essays as opposed to reading and writing about a judgement from a case. Therefore, before even attempting to do past papers, you must make sure that you are doing the right ones to save valuable time before interview.
Secondly, plan before you write. The test is one hour long and the admissions tutors are not looking for incredibly long and rambling answers, rather concise, clearly structured responses which answer the question posed. As such, I would recommend spending 10-15 minutes properly planning and gathering your thoughts - 45 minutes is still a long time to write and check over your response. This time will also allow you to calm down in what can be a stressful experience which will only allow you to produce an even better answer.
This leads me to my third tip which is to lay out your argument lucidly in the introduction. A quick 4 sentence introduction which defines the key terms and states your argument illustrates real clarity of thought and is exactly what admissions tutors seek in a potential law student.
Building on this, my fourth tip is to use subheadings throughout your answer. This does not mean that they should be used excessively, but 3-4 are useful to properly structure your argument and illustrate to examiners that you are following your argument laid out in the introduction.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you do not need to know any law. Cambridge admissions tutors do not expect you to know much, if any law, and in fact, prefer it if you know none so that they can properly teach you to 'think like a lawyer'. Thus, when taking the CLT any examples or evidence you give to support your points is better gathered from current affairs or even knowledge gained through your A Level or IB studies. Therefore, I'd recommend keeping up to date with the news and doing as much wider reading (on any subject really) as you can.
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