How to pass the AIBE – All India Bar Exam

This is one of our most popular articles; which is essentially an answer to an oft asked question – “ How to pass the All India Bar Exam ? ”

While new LLB graduates will still be relatively fresh and familiar with their LLB syllabus, practicing advocates who have to take the All India Bar Exam after several years of practice may be out of touch with the academic aspects of the topics that are outside their regular practice areas. From their perspective, the above question will be more pertinent, since the objective is to clear the AIBE without interrupting their practice.

If you have any questions not covered in this article, feel free to reach out to us at hello@lawmint.com

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There are two ways to look at the entire preparation process for the AIBE – All India Bar Exam :

The first approach is to consider the AIBE preparation as an opportunity to brush up on the various topics you have studied during your LLB. This approach is also useful if you are preparing for the Judicial Services Exams or taking up LLM entrance exams. Here, you will study all the 19 to 20 areas covered in the exam syllabus.

The second approach is to lower your target – to just clear or pass the AIBE, with the least possible effort. This approach is useful if you are already a practicing lawyer or intend to take up a corporate job. This will be a more focused study of only the most essential topics to pass the AIBE.

LawMint.com prep courses are designed for both of these approaches. Our ‘Essentials’ courses covers the AIBE syllabus in such a way that you will spend the least amount of time and effort to clear the exam.

Our ‘Comprehensive’ courses covers the syllabus in depth and also helps you simultaneously prepare for State Judicial Services and LLM Entrance Exams of various Universities.

Before moving ahead, let us understand the format and the pass criteria for the All India Bar Exam.

• The AIBE is an Open book, MCQ – Multiple Choice Question based examination
• There will be 100 questions of 1 mark each, to be answered in 3 hours and 30 minutes (210 minutes in total)
• To pass the exam, you will need to score 40% i.e. You will have to correctly answer at least 40 questions
• There is no negative marking; as long as you have at least 40 correct answers, any number of wrong answers will not affect your scores
• Since the results will only be a Pass / Fail and no specific scores will be given to candidates, you can simply target to correctly answer anywhere up to 50* questions and safely ignore the rest.

* Though you will need only 40 correct answers to pass, we recommend an additional buffer of at least 10 questions to account for any eventualities

Next, let us understand syllabus and the patterns of the All India Bar Exam

• The questions will be from 19 – 20 areas of Law, that are part of the 3 year and 5 year LLB syllabus – approved by the BCI
• Of the above areas, there are some topics which have a higher weightage than others. (Read our article on the evolution of the AIBE syllabus for in-depth analysis.)
• The following nine topics account for 65% of the total marks i.e. 65 questions out of the total 100
  (1) Administrative Law,
  (2) Alternative Dispute Redressal including Arbitration Act,
  (3) Cr.P.C (Criminal Procedure Code),
  (4) Evidence Act,
  (5) Professional Ethics & Cases of Professional Misconduct under BCI rules,
  (6) C.P.C – Code of Civil Procedure,
  (7) Constitutional Law,
  (8) Family Law,
  (9) I.P.C – Indian Penal Code.
• These five topics cover 23% of the questions and are relatively straightforward
  (1) Company Law,
  (2) Cyber Law,
  (3) Environmental Law, Labour & Industrial Laws,
  (4) Law of Tort – including Motor Vehicle Act and Consumer Protection Law,
  (5) Law of Contract, Specific Relief, Property Laws, Negotiable Instrument Act.
• Four newly included topics from AIBE X 2017 which cover 12% of the exam are
  (1) Intellectual Property Laws,
  (2) Land Acquisition Act,
  (3) Public Interest Litigation,
  (4) Law related to Taxation.

What should you focus on ?

• Theoretically, if you focus on and master the topics which have a higher weightage, you should clear or pass the AIBE ; but there is a caveat: Higher weightage means that the questions can be from relatively obscure sections of the bare acts or on interpretations of the act. So focusing only on these nine topics is very risky.
• On the other hand, the topics which have lesser weightage have questions covering the main parts of the act or are relatively simpler ‘interpretive’ questions.

So the most ideal approach is a low-to-high approach, where we start off by focusing on the topics with the lower weightage. Study the bare act, understand the overall structure of the act and then attempt at least 100 questions from each topic.

Next we move on to the areas with higher weightage. These will require a more in-depth study since the questions here will more likely be interpretive and from case laws – not a straight bare-act based.

Subjects (This is a generic list. Refer to the current year’s syllabus for latest list)	Questions
Company Law	2
Cyber Law	2
Environmental Law	2
Intellectual Property Laws	2
Land Acquisition Act	2
Administrative Law	3
Alternative Dispute Redressal including Arbitration Act	4
Labour & Industrial Laws	4
Professional Ethics & Cases of Professional Misconduct under BCI rules	4
Public Interest Litigation	4
Law related to Taxation	4
Law of Tort, including Motor Vehicle Act and Consumer Protection Law	5
Evidence Act	8
Family Law	8
I.P.C (Indian Penal Code)	8
Law of Contract, Specific Relief, Property Laws, Negotiable Instrument Act	8
C.P.C (Code of Civil Procedure)	10
Constitutional Law	10
Cr.P.C (Criminal Procedure Code)	10

Authentic Feedback from previous LawMint users :

I got AIR 21 in CLAT PG. Thank you so much. Your mocks helped me a lot in my preparation 🙂 - Ayushi Jain

I have subscribed to your CLAT PG program and got AIR 36 in this year CLAT PG. I have also secured AIR 54 in AILET PG exam. I would like to thank you. Your mock paper really helps a lot - Shrashank Tripathi

I would like to thank you for the CLAT PG LLM COURSE. Practising mock tests there helped me in getting confidence and hence I was able to get AIR 45 in CLAT PG LLM - Akshay Awasthi

A year back, I relied on the IIT Kharagpur RGSOIPL mock test series by LawMint to prepare for my RGSOIPL entrance test. Few months back, I relied on your UGC NET Law series to prepare for UGC NET. I was the topper of the RGSOIPL entrance, and have cracked JRF in UGC NET. All thanks to LawMint - Anshuman Sahoo

"I got AIR 18 in CLAT PG and General Category rank 28 in AILET PG. I want to thank you for helping me practice well in controlled conditions from any place. It gave me a lot of confidence and I took the tests while travelling too. I also made it to IIT Kharagpur." - Vinodharani

"Lawmint has been of great help to me in securing AIR 25 in AILET PG and AIR 29 in CLAT PG examinations. The subjective and objective approach of the test series kept me up to date with the latest exam pattern." - Bhawna Nanda

"I, Nimmy Saira Zachariah joined you clat test series. I cleared AILET PG with 30th rank. Your test series were of immense help as it gave me clear idea of where my preparations stand thank you once again law mint." - Nimmy S Z

"Hey guys. Where do I start? If I thought that getting AIR 59 in Clat PG was it, then how wrong I was. With Lawmint now I have cracked UGC NET as well." - Joyanta Chakraborty

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The bottom line is that the best way to prepare for the AIBE – All India Bar Examination  is practice, practice and more practice. Just take as many mock tests as possible and analyse your results. Focus on your ‘weak areas’ and you will sail through the AIBE exams!

Your comments and feedback are welcome. Check out the evolution of the AIBE syllabus to understand how the exam has evolved over the years.