Am I the only one who feel that ailet is much tougher than clat? I wasn’t able to crack it and oh boy ailet 2023 was gruesome. Does anyone feel this?

The exam is not the defining criteria - the playing field is

There's no sanctity of AILET. Very opaque and no possibility of challenge. There have also been allegations that in one year, many students from the same coaching centre cracked it together.

The difficulty level of a competitive exam depends on the number of applicants rather than the paper. If the paper is easy, cutoffs will go up and vice-versa. To answer your question, it is more difficult to get NLS through CLAT than NLUD and the difficulty level should be similar when compared with NALSAR or NUJS

AILET focuses more on rote memorisation skills and is more traditionally designed compared to CLAT. Some people find that easier, some harder to crack. There's no universal standard. Personally, I do not believe that modern legal education should require rote memorisation at all. I've met several young teachers in law school who agree with that perspective and instead focus on critical thinking, problem solving and application. They also happened to be among the best faculty there.

Have you seen the new pattern

AILET and CLAT have both shown a very remarkable shift in their pattern. Even AILET is very comprehension based now. Also unlike CLAT, it's a very unpredictable exam as reflected in the cutoff scores which were as high as above 100 in 2021 but fell to around 70 this year. You must have the same percentile to make it to the top 3 through CLAT and NLU Delhi through AILET. CLAT therefore might be comparatively easier if you are also ok with colleges like NLUJ, GNLU, NLIU etc. Thus, both exam are equally difficult if you want the top colleges.