Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) candidates must enter their exam centres 30 minutes ahead of time on Sunday, with only a pen and a pencil.

This year 50,676 students will appear for admission to 2,250 seats across the country. The exam is from 3pm-5pm. The number of applicants has gone up by nearly 5,000 since 2016 and sources said Supreme Court's removal of the age limit - 20 years - has led to it.

The Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), the state's sole law varsity, will conduct CLAT in Bihar on May 14 at eight centres across the state. The examination - admission gateway to the 18 national law universities - will start from 3pm and authorities said candidates should enter the centres between 1.30pm and 2.30pm.

CNLU registrar S.P. Singh said students will be let in after the 2.30pm-mark only in special circumstances.

"Students are advised to enter their examination centres by 2.30pm," Singh said. "After that students on in special cases will be allowed to enter the centre. According to CLAT instructions, a student will get 30 minutes to login, register their biometric thumb impression and complete other formalities."

The examination will end at 5pm. Seven of the test centres will be in Patna and one in Muzaffarpur. Across the country, CLAT will be held in 138 centres spread across 65 cities. The CLAT administration has adopted strict measures to check use of unfair means in the test.

S.P. Singh said: "Students will be allowed to enter the centre with only a pen and pencil. No electronic gadgets such as mobile phone will be allowed inside the centre."

The examination, like previous year, will be divided into five sections - verbal ability, mathematics, logical reasoning, general knowledge and legal aptitude - with a total of 200 questions. For every wrong answer .25 marks will be deducted.

"I have gone through the model test papers of the past few years," said Kumar Gaurav, who is appearing for CLAT. "I am focusing on verbal ability (English), general knowledge and legal aptitude for the exam."