Boys scoring higher than girls

Girls scoring higher than boys

Girls outperformed boys in more countries in a science test given to 15-year-old students in 65 countries — but in the United States, boys led the girls. Countries in Asia and Northern Europe had high scores, and 15-year-old girls consistently outscored boys. But the opposite was true in the United States, where boys scored 2.7 percent better than girls. The trend in Western European countries and the Americas was similar; boys performed better than girls. Students in Eastern and Southern Europe, and the Middle East, had slightly lower overall scores, but girls consistently did better than boys.

The exam, which is given every three years, was taken in 2009 by 470,000 students in 65 developed nations. The 2012 data will be available in December. China, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates released data from a single city, not the whole country.