Cambridge University has become an unlikely supporter of the government in the row about whether or not A-level exams have been dumbed down.

Academics at the university have praised ministers for introducing a new 'super-grade' A* with more difficult questions to stretch the brightest pupils. If the A* and other reforms are successful, they will consider withdrawing tough entrance tests that were introduced when confidence in the A-level slipped.

Dr Geoff Parks, director of admissions at Cambridge, said: 'We have stopped discussing introducing more admissions tests because of the reforms in A-levels.'

'[The government] is moving in the right direction and it is possible that, in a few years time, we will discontinue some of the tests already in place,' he said. 'If the public examination system is doing the job, we will not need them.'

Currently, many candidates sit Thinking Skills Assessment tests in which they face 50 multiple-choice questions designed to measure potential.

But Parks and his colleagues have been impressed by the changes proposed for A-levels. He welcomed the planned introduction of 'more open-ended questions', and the decision to bring work currently covered in the high level Advanced Extension Awards into A-level.

He is also pleased that one of the university's recommendations was taken up - to base the A* grade only on final exams rather than the AS modules that can be retaken.

Exam boards, at the heart of the criticism around exam standards, welcomed the news yesterday. Dr Mike Cresswell, director general of the exam board AQA, said he was 'delighted' by Parks's remarks. Cresswell argued that A-levels were accessible to all students and it was preferable for universities to use a national system of exams rather than set their own tests.

Meanwhile, a study of how GCSEs have evolved over the past 20 years has found that these exams give girls a bigger advantage over boys than O-levels had. An analysis by Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research, at the University of Buckingham, found that the 'gender gap' grew much more quickly when the new exam system was introduced two decades ago.

'GCSE rewards consistency and persistence because questions tend to be structured and course work plays an important part,' said Smithers. 'Those play to the strengths of girls. Boys tend to do better at exams.'

Although the gap exists across the developed world, Smithers argued that some countries had education systems that gave girls a bigger advantage. 'Iceland has the archetypal girl-friendly system,' he said.

The report also showed GCSE A grades (including A* from 1994) have risen from 8.6 to 19.5 per cent, while A* to C has increased from 42.5 to 63.3 per cent.