AILET 2027 Exam Pattern: Marks, Sections and Marking Scheme

The AILET 2027 exam pattern for the five-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) programme is a single 120-minute paper with 150 multiple-choice questions and three sections. NLU Delhi has scheduled the test for Sunday, 13 December 2026, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, in offline mode at centres across India.

This page explains the section-wise marks, the marking scheme with negative marking, what the numbers mean for your time use, and how the LL.M. paper differs. The pattern below is taken from published reports of the current cycle and could not be matched line by line against the full official brochure, so treat it as tentative and confirm it on the official NLU Delhi admissions website.

Table of Contents

• AILET 2027 exam pattern at a glance

• B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) paper pattern

• Marking scheme and negative marking

• What the pattern means for you

• LL.M. paper pattern

• After the exam: merit and counselling

• Time management and exam-day strategy

AILET 2027 exam pattern at a glance

B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) paper pattern

All sections sit in one paper and you can move between them freely, since no sectional time limit has been reported. The topics tested in each section are listed on the AILET syllabus page.

Key changes to know

• Legal Aptitude and Elementary Mathematics: Reports say these are no longer separate sections. Older pages and old papers may still show them.

• Logical Reasoning weight: The reasoning section is now the largest block, with legal propositions appearing inside it.

Older pages may still show a pattern with four or five sections, so follow the latest official notification. When you practise with previous papers, remember that their section split may differ from the current one.

Marking scheme and negative marking

Each correct answer earns 1 mark. Each wrong answer leads to a deduction of 0.25 marks. Questions you leave unattempted carry no penalty. Your net score is therefore:

$\text{Net score} = C - 0.25 \times W$

Here C is the number of correct answers and W is the number of wrong answers. For example, a candidate who attempts 120 questions with 100 correct and 20 wrong scores 100 minus 5, which is 95 marks out of 150.

What the pattern means for you

• Reasoning decides your rank: Almost half the marks come from Logical Reasoning, so even a small gain in accuracy there moves your rank more than the same gain in current affairs.

• Time per question is short: 120 minutes for 150 questions is about 48 seconds on average. Passage-based questions take longer, so quick questions must be answered fast.

• A wrong answer costs more than a skip saves: One wrong answer cancels a quarter of one correct answer. If you can remove at least one option, an educated guess is usually worth it. Pure guessing on questions you cannot read is not.

• Accuracy beats attempts: Top ranks in this exam are decided by a few marks, so a clean 130 attempts with few errors tends to beat 150 attempts with many errors.

LL.M. paper pattern

Published reports describe the LL.M. paper as 100 multiple-choice questions on law subjects such as constitutional law, contract law, torts and criminal law, with the same 0.25 negative marking and a two-hour duration. One source gave a different mark total for the LL.M. paper, so treat the LL.M. details as indicative and verify them in the official brochure before planning.

After the exam: merit and counselling

NLU Delhi ranks candidates on their AILET score and allots seats through counselling, based on rank, category and preference. Tie-breaking rules and counselling dates are announced in the official brochure and notices, so read them early. The AILET cut-off page shows how closing ranks have moved in earlier counselling rounds.

Time management and exam-day strategy

1. Start with your strongest section: A quick, confident start protects your timing for the harder passages.

2. Do a first pass on reasoning: Solve the clear arguments and inference questions first and mark the lengthy ones for later.

3. Protect the sure marks: Current affairs questions take seconds if you know the fact, so answer them without overthinking.

4. Leave a buffer: Keep the last 10 minutes to check the OMR sheet, because bubbling errors are a common reason for lost marks.