Checked 29 September 2026. From the LLB 3-year and 5-year CET 2026 information brochures and the CET Cell's 28 January 2025 marking-scheme notice. The 2027 brochures are not out yet.
The Maharashtra State CET Cell runs two law entrance tests: MAH-LL.B. 3 Years CET for graduates and MAH-LL.B. 5 Years CET for students after Class 12. Since the 2025 cycle both are 120 questions for 120 marks in 2 hours, online, in English and Marathi, with four options per question and no negative marking. They share four sections but weigh them differently, and the 5-year paper adds 8 questions of basic mathematics. This guide sets out both from the CET Cell's own documents, explains the percentile your merit position is built on, and ends with an estimator.
CET Cell brochures 2026 and public notice of 28 January 2025.
The two papers side by side
| Section | LLB 3-year | LLB 5-year |
|---|---|---|
| Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning | 24 | 32 |
| General Knowledge with Current Affairs | 32 | 24 |
| Logical and Analytical Reasoning | 24 | 32 |
| English | 40 | 24 |
| Basic Mathematics | — | 8 |
| Total (questions = marks) | 120 | 120 |
From the updated marking schemes attached to the CET Cell's public notice of 28 January 2025, repeated in section 11 of the 2026 brochures.
CET Cell marking schemes, A.Y. 2025-26 onwards.
The difference in emphasis is the first thing to plan around. The 3-year paper is a third English — 40 of 120 marks — and GK is its second-largest section. The 5-year paper puts 64 of its 120 marks on legal and logical reasoning, and only 24 on English. A graduate preparing for the 3-year paper with a book written for the 5-year one (or for CLAT) will under-prepare the section that carries most marks.
What changed in 2025
Until the 2024 cycle both CETs were 150 marks. The CET Cell's notice of 28 January 2025 says the Government "amended the marking scheme" so that from academic year 2025-26 both tests are "conducted for 120 marks instead of 150 marks". The same notice says "the syllabus, weightage of components and duration of the examination will be the same as before (i.e. 120 minutes)." So there are now 120 questions in 120 minutes — one minute a question, where the older paper allowed 48 seconds.
Where other pages get this wrong
MAH LLB CET (3-year and 5-year) has been a 120-question, 120-mark, 2-hour paper since the 2025 cycle.
Commonly published instead: "150 questions in 2 hours" — the pattern until 2024 that many pages still print.
The CET Cell's public notice of 28 January 2025 changed both CETs to 120 marks from A.Y. 2025-26, with duration unchanged; the 2026 brochures repeat the 120-mark tables.
The syllabus in the CET Cell's words
| Section | What the 3-year brochure says it tests |
|---|---|
| Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning | Interest in the study of law, legal aptitude and problem solving. Questions give legal propositions and facts to apply them to; some propositions "may not be true in the real sense" and must be assumed true. |
| General Knowledge with Current Affairs | History, geography, general science, economics, civics, and current affairs of the past one year. |
| Logical and Analytical Reasoning | Patterns, logical links, completing arguments, analogies, applying rules, and deductive reasoning from statements about persons, things or events. |
| English | Vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms, analogies), proficiency (idioms, one-word substitution, sentence improvement and rearrangement, fill in the blanks), usage errors, and comprehension of at least two passages with five to ten questions each. |
Summarised from section 11.7 of the LLB 3-year brochure 2026. The 5-year brochure covers the same four areas plus basic mathematics.
Two lines deserve attention. In legal reasoning, answer from the proposition given, not from the law you know — the brochure says outright that some propositions may be untrue and are to be assumed true. And the English section guarantees at least two passages with five to ten questions each, so comprehension can be anywhere from 10 to 20 of the 40 English marks on the 3-year paper.
How your percentile is worked out
The LLB 3-year CET is held over several sessions with different question sets, so the CET Cell normalises. Section 21 of the 2026 brochure says your raw mark is turned into a percentile within your own session: the percentage of candidates in that session who scored equal to or below you. The topper of every session therefore gets 100. Percentiles are calculated to seven decimal places "to avoid bunching effect", and the brochure warns that the total percentile "shall NOT be an aggregate or average" of section percentiles — and that "percentile score is not the same as percentage of marks obtained."
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Raw mark | Questions right, out of 120 — no deductions |
| Session percentile | 100 × (candidates in your session with a raw mark ≤ yours) ÷ (candidates present in your session) |
| Merit number | Your position in the CAP merit list; the cut-off pages print it next to the percentile |
Formula as described in section 21 of the LLB 3-year brochure 2026. Tie-breaking beyond the seventh decimal is set out in the CAP rules, not the CET brochure.
A worked example (our illustration)
- Say 2,249 candidates were present in your session.
- You scored 78 raw marks, and 2,137 candidates in that session — you included — scored 78 or less.
- Your session percentile = 100 × 2,137 ÷ 2,249 = 95.0200089 (to seven decimals).
- A candidate in a harder session with a lower raw mark can reach the same percentile, because each session is ranked only against itself.
What this means in practice: a percentile of 95 does not mean 95% of the marks. It means you scored at least as well as 95% of your session. In 2026's first CAP round, Government Law College, Mumbai closed at the 99.72 percentile for Maharashtra open seats — merit number 175.
Exam-day rules
| Rule | What the CET Cell says (2026) |
|---|---|
| Mode | Online, in multiple sessions if required, at centres in Maharashtra only — no centre outside the state |
| Medium | Questions in English and Marathi |
| Session and centre | Allotted by the CET Cell; no change of centre, venue or session |
| Scribe | Allowed for eligible candidates, arranged at the candidate's own cost, with 20 minutes of compensatory time per hour |
| Mock test | The brochure says a mock-test link "will be provided" |
From sections 4, 11 and 12 of the 2026 brochures.
Preparing for both papers?
Some Class 12 students sit the 5-year CET, and some graduates sit the 3-year CET alongside other law tests. The four common sections are the same in kind but not in weight, so the same preparation serves both if you shift the balance: more English and GK for the 3-year paper, more legal and logical reasoning for the 5-year paper, and Class 10 arithmetic for its 8 maths questions. Only one of the two will be your route — a graduate cannot take a seat through the 5-year CAP on a degree, and a Class 12 student is not eligible for the 3-year course.
Mistakes that cost marks
- Leaving questions blank — with no negative marking, a blank is a certain zero.
- Answering legal-reasoning questions from real law instead of the principle printed in the question.
- Preparing from 150-question material without adjusting to the 120-question section split.
- Treating the percentile as a percentage of marks when setting targets.
Pacing 120 questions in 120 minutes
| Section (3-year paper) | Suggested time | Why |
|---|---|---|
| English (40) | 35 minutes | Passages take reading time; grammar items go fast |
| GK and current affairs (32) | 15 minutes | You know it or you do not |
| Legal aptitude (24) | 30 minutes | Principle-and-facts questions need careful reading |
| Logical reasoning (24) | 30 minutes | Arrangement and argument sets are slow |
| Review | 10 minutes | Answer every question left blank — a guess costs nothing |
Our suggestion, not an official split. Adjust to the paper in front of you.
Estimate your raw mark
MAH LLB CET raw-mark estimator
Pick the paper and enter how many questions you expect to get right in each section. Every question is 1 mark and a wrong answer costs nothing, so your raw mark is simply the number right. The estimator also shows how much of the paper each section carries.
Section sizes from the CET Cell's 28 Jan 2025 marking-scheme notice and the 2026 brochures. Your merit position is decided by a percentile computed within your own session, not by this raw mark — see the normalisation section above.
Practise it, don't just read it
One quiz per section: build speed on the part that carries the most marks in your paper.
The ProSyllabus MAH LLB CET library has a quiz for each section of the paper — Legal Aptitude and Legal Reasoning, General Knowledge and Current Affairs, Logical and Analytical Reasoning, English and, for the 5-year paper, Basic Mathematics. The first one is free.
What is the exam pattern of MAH LLB 3 year CET?
120 multiple-choice questions for 120 marks in 2 hours: legal aptitude 24, GK with current affairs 32, logical and analytical reasoning 24, English 40. Online, English and Marathi, no negative marking.
What is the exam pattern of MAH LLB 5 year CET?
120 questions for 120 marks in 2 hours: legal aptitude 32, GK 24, logical reasoning 32, English 24 and basic mathematics 8.
Is there negative marking in MAH LLB CET?
No. Both brochures say there is no negative marking.
Is MAH LLB CET 150 marks or 120 marks?
120 marks since the 2025 cycle. The CET Cell changed it from 150 by a public notice of 28 January 2025.
Is maths asked in MAH LLB 3 year CET?
No. Basic mathematics (8 questions) is only in the 5-year paper.
Can I write MAH LLB CET in Marathi?
The questions are given in English and Marathi.
How is the MAH LLB CET percentile calculated?
Within your session: the percentage of candidates in that session who scored equal to or below you, to seven decimals. It is not a percentage of marks.
Are there MAH LLB CET exam centres outside Maharashtra?
No. The 2026 brochures say the CET is held only in Maharashtra.
Sources
- official — CET Cell — Information Brochure, MAH-LL.B. 3 Years CET 2026
- official — CET Cell — Information Brochure, MAH-LL.B. 5 Years CET 2026
- official — CET Cell — public notice: change in marking scheme of LLB 3 and 5 years CET (28 Jan 2025)
- official — CET Cell — public notice: final dates of CET 2026
- official — LLB 3 Yrs CAP portal 2026-27 — round-wise cut-off, Round I
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
