Method of Measurement and Gender Differences in Scholastic Achievement

Gender differences in scholastic achievement as a function of method of measurement were examined by comparing the performance of 15-year-old boys (N = 739) and girls (N = 758) in Irish schools on multiple-choice tests andfree-response tests (requiring short written answers) of mathematics, Irish, and English achievement. Males performed significantly better than females on multiple-choice tests compared to their performance on free-response examinations. An expectation that the gender difference would be larger for the languages and smaller for mathematics because of the superior verbal skills attributed to females was not fulfilled.

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