Hard work and firm determination helped Riya Jose win the first rank in the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC)'s company/corporation/board assistant exam.
Riya worked diligently towards her goal for a government job.
“I tried to study all subjects daily. Allotted more time to study the difficult subjects,” she explained.
Riya is the daughter of Chalakudy natives Uppan Jose and Annie. Her husband Joseph is a teacher at the St Sebastian's High School at Kanjoor.
As the PSC is yet to announce the marks, Riya does not know how much she scored. But she is sure she has secured more than 85 marks.
Riya started training for PSC tests soon after completing graduation from the Christ College at Irinjalakuda. But she took a break from the PSC coaching, as she enrolled for MSc Physics at UC College, Aluva. Two years later, she returned to the world of coaching classes.
Then she started preparing on her own. Riya also made use of a library near her house. The library had several publications on PSC exam preparation. But sometimes she noticed that the various publications gave different answers to same questions.
Riya further checked these up until she found the right answer. All this helped her in the exam preparation. She read the books several times to memorise the portions. Apart from these, she also went for combined studies.
She also secured good ranks in LD clerk, civil supplies, and secretariat assistant exams. She got the 29th rank in the LD clerk exam and was given appointment at the Sree Rama Government Polytechnic College at Triprayar.
She has been working at the college for one year now. She secured the 121st rank in the secretariat assistant exam. When the appointment based on this rank list is offered to her, Riya plans to take it up.
Riya says that she is a regular reader of the Thozhilveedhi.
"The sample tests and current affairs given in Thozhilveedhi helped me a lot. I used to work on the model question papers every week. This helped in reducing the negative marks and also trained me in marking the answers fast,” she said.