Legal aspirants on Sunday found the online format of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) easier than the conventional pen-and-paper mode, much to their relief.

This was the first time the examination was conducted online for admission to 16 national law universities. In the state, the test was conducted at two centres and aspirants were visibly happy with the new format describing it to be time-saving.

Earlier, candidates had the option of taking the online or offline test but very few aspirants from Bihar went for the former. Sujeet Singh, an aspirant, said: "The online test was easier, as we had to click the correct answer out of four options. The biggest advantage of the online examination was that changes could be carried out by re-clicking. In the old format, one had to erase the wrong answer and colour the correct answer in an optical mark recognition (OMR) sheet that was time-consuming."

The online test was held at Acme Institute of Information Technology (at Sri Krishna Puri) and Uno Digital Pvt Ltd (near P&M Mall). The two test centres are also the Internet service providers for CLAT 2015 in Bihar. In these two centres, 1,825 candidates appeared for the exam. Each aspirant was provided a user id, a password and a computer.

CNLU registrar S.P. Singh, who was present at a centre, said: "The online CLAT was introduced for the first time and aspirants were happy with the new format. Conducting online test in Bihar was a challenge but the test passed off without any hurdles."

Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow, conducted CLAT 2015. The all-India examination is conducted on rotation basis by 16 national law universities for admissions to their under-graduate and post-graduate degree programmes (LLB and LLM).

Candidates, however, said the paper was tough compared to the previous year. The mathematics and general knowledge sections were tougher. Priyanshu Kumar, an aspirant, said: "The mathematics section was tougher as questions required more calculations to get the right answer."

Sources said this year the CLAT cut-off was likely to be lower owing to the tough questions. Last year, the upper limit at National Law School of India University, Bangalore, was 171.75, while the lower cut-off was 124.75. At Chanakya National Law University, the highest cut-off and lowest cut-offs were 133 and 125.75, respectively for general category students.

The two-hour paper consisted of five sections - English (40 questions), general knowledge and general awareness (50 marks each), mathematics (20 marks), legal aptitude (50 marks) and logical reasoning (40 marks).

The results would be declared on May 20.