This article was written by Pritish Chatterjee, now practicing law in Mumbai.

Enter Law

Savan mein lagi aag! This aptly describes how I entered law. It all started from 1st pre-boards in November of 2009 of class 12. The results had come. I had failed in all four subjects PCMB (Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Biology). Yes, you heard it right! I had failed in all exams. There were teachers saying take a year drop, parents upset & friends let down. I was a shame!

That evening I went to the park which is in front of my house. I sat there almost crying thinking what a mess I am in. At this rate, I won’t be even able to pass boards & even if I pass I won’t get decent marks. I had almost quit. I was drowned in silence. I was distraught.

Then suddenly a voice came from inside. Pritish wake up! There is no reason to get upset. Just bad results of 1st pre-boards mean absolutely nothing. You weren’t prepared well this time. You have already hit the lowest point of your life. Now there is no way you can go further low. At the end of the tunnel comes light. After every night comes day. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. I told this to myself and took a fresh guard. This time around I was determined. There was fire in my eyes, a burning desire to succeed. I started putting hard work. My mind, heart and soul had just one mission- to do well in next preboards. My total percentage in 1st pre-boards was around 12%. I had to set a realistic target and build on to it. So I targeted to pass in each subject. For next months my parents saw the metamorphosed Pritish. There was no TV, no sports no nothing except for one goal in life. I had already garnered support from my parents and I must thank my Principal, Mitali Rudra Madam, for believing in me during that dark phase.

Then came 2nd pre-boards. It was time to show everyone what I was doing for one month. Results came, I had passed in all subjects except Maths. My percentage was around 37% which meant I just passed. But from 12% to 37% was a quantum jump for me. My parents, principal were happy and showed more faith in me. They told me I could score around 70% easily in boards. I was surprised, but at the back of my mind I wanted to give it shot!

Now the next big question was even if I score minimum 50% what will I pursue my career as. More importantly, would I be eligible for those exams. CLAT had eligibility of 55%, AIEEE had 50%.So, and there was another crucial decision to make of my life. There was so much confusion and clutter in my head.

I started soul- searching. I knew I was good in pursuing & influencing people which is repeatedly told by my parents and friends. I also had decent public speaking skills (or I would like to think so), I had no stage fear. Throughout the life I have been that kind of a student who asks a lot of doubts, questions the status quo and irritates the hell out of teachers! I was often termed argumentative by my friends. I was keen on building a skill-set that could help me participate in multiple areas. I wanted to work on my growth in terms of broadening perspective, networks, opportunities, and ideas.

With this in mind,all put in one, I figured law will be my best bet. I had got my career choice. Immediately, I searched online about law coaching and books. I asked some of my seniors too. They all recommended LST (Law School Tutorial) crash course for 1 month. Luckily, one of my batch mates used to go to LST. I was friends with him. I asked him about the books, courses and all relevant information. I saw there are 5 sections in law entrance exams:

Legal analysis
Analytical reasoning
G.K.
English
Maths

I asked him for all his LST books at one time. He agreed as he was then not reading them. It was January and I had found my career choice and the target of scoring decent marks in boards. I started going through LST materials and board exam studies. I had to strike a balance between the two. So, I retained just the legal analysis and GK books and returned the rest to him as these two subjects had maximum weightage. It was March. The boards started- Physics, Maths, Chemistry, Biology and English. It ended before I realized. Battle was over, but not the war.

Immediately, I joined crash course LST for one month. I got books of all 5 sections as I had mentioned. To my delight, the topics of legal analysis and GK sounded familiar. I had already completed two of the 5 subjects. With this advantage, I was slightly ahead of others. I had a burning desire to succeed in entrance exam. I kept relentlessly fighting for whole month with precious little relaxation. It was May, time for CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) and SET (Symbiosis Entrance test). I did well in both the exams, or at least I thought so. In the meanwhile, CBSE results were declared and I scored 68% (almost my target 70%) with personal highest of 84 in biology and 80 in chemistry. Wow! From 12% to 68% , an improvement of 58%.

I was happy with my results. Soon results for CLAT and SET were declared. I didn’t make the cut for CLAT in the law schools I wanted (I was getting in CNLU, Patna which I didn’t want). In SET, I scored 90 whereas the cut off was 92. My father was delighted by the effort and decided to get me a seat via management quota (yeah yeah I am a management quota student) but I did work hard for it. I got admission to one of the top 10 law schools of the country. I couldn’t be happier. My parents, my principal who supported me through all tough moments were really proud. Arguably my happiest moment of my life, given the huge battle I fought. Savan mein lagi thi aag!