Females continue to outsmart males in most subjects

GIRLS who do Leaving Certificate maths are less likely to choose the higher level exam but female students still continue to do better in most subjects, official figures have revealed. Analysis of results issued to students on Wednesday show that girls who sat higher-level maths did better than their male counterparts.

In this and 21 of the other most popular subjects at higher level – except applied maths, engineering and construction studies – a bigger proportion of girls got honours grades.

While the number of boys taking higher-level maths is significantly higher than girls (4,679 compared with 3,741), 82% of female candidates got an A, B or C compared with 79.5% of males doing the exam.

Of all the girls who sat maths exams this year, the proportion who took the higher-level paper was just 14.3% – one-in-seven – compared with 18% or almost one-in-five male maths students.

There has been major concern this week about the fact that less than one-in-six Leaving Cert students sat higher-level maths, a proportion that is dropping every year.

Of almost 25,000 students who sat higher-level English this year, more than 14,300 were female and almost 10,600 were male candidates. But while almost 79% of girls got honours in their results on Wednesday, only 72% of males achieved the same.

The superior results for females are repeated in higher-level biology, geography, Irish, French, business, home economics, art and history.

Just under 51% – 29,205 – of the 57,445 students who sat Leaving Certificate exams in June were female. Almost 90% of them sat higher, ordinary or foundation level maths, compared with 91% of boys.

Up to 2007, higher-level maths was one of the few subjects where boys still outshone girls, but females have done better for each of the last two years. This is consistent with recent trends showing girls were closing the gap in maths at Junior Certificate level.

Research in Ireland and internationally has consistently shown that teenage girls are better than boys at studying for intensive exams like the Junior and Leaving Certificates.

However, the gap appears to be widening, with 5% more girls getting honours grades than boys this year in five of the 10 most popular higher-level Leaving Certificate subjects.