Tamil girl Prema Jayakumar, 24, daughter of an autorickshaw driver at suburban Malad in Mumbai, conquered all odds to emerge as topper in the tough Chartered Accountancy (CA) exam. 

For her father Jayakumar Perumal, who had migrated to Mumbai from Sankarapuram in Villupuram district back in 1990 hoping to find a job to take care of his wife and three children, it was double joy as his son Dhanraj too cleared CA in the first attempt along with elder sister Prema in the exam conducted in November last year. The CA results were declared on Monday.

“I am thrilled, obviously. This is my lifetime achievement. My brother and I achieved this with sheer hard work. And we both owe our success to the sacrifices made by our parents,” gushed Prema told this newspaper.

The family lives in a one-room chawl and all the three children — two girls and a boy —studied in the local municipal school that had Tamil as second language.  It was tough for Jayakumar to bring up the kids with his meager income , until Prema started earning a small allowance doing her articleship.

Chawl-girl cracks tough test

 Chennai: Every year, around 30,000 candidates write the CA final examination across the country and of them, less than 15 per cent get through. Many of them would have appeared multiple times. That’s why the Monday joy for Prema Jayakumar is more than special: not only did she clear CA at first shot, she also topped what’s undo­ubtedly one of the toughest tests across the academic board.

 “In my experience and as far as I know, Prema’s achievement has no match. It is an all India professional course in which students from all parts of the country take up the exam. You need great amount of will power, dedication, hard work and commitment to clear this course”, said Sekar, who runs a successful CA coaching centre at Chennai and member of the central council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Pointing out that without self-disciple it would not be possible to crack the exam in first attempt, Sekar said that it would take at least four years for a candidate who puts in lot of hard work to clear the course.

Shanthi, a student who pursues CA, said it would not be easy to clear the exam in first attempt. “Its difficult for many to answer all questions as the institute sets paper in such a way it tests students all round abilities. I’ve seen several of my friends dropping out after second or third year as they fail to clear the exam twice or thrice.