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Why evidence indicates that girls might outperform boys on an IELTS Exam

Author: Gabrielle Sudwarts
by Gabrielle Sudwarts
Posted: Jun 06, 2014

Known as a comprehensive test that accurately gauges a person's abilities and their understanding of English, it is little surprise that the International English Language exam remains a widely-used test in the UK and elsewhere. Students spend hours studying and take the exam seriously because it determines their future in many cases. The band students have achieved in their English language skills, may determine whether they can enter the profession they want and attend college or go to a trade school to learn a skill.

Billed as the most widely recognized test, thousands take the IELTS exam annually. It is therefore not too surprising that the test and getting high marks is so desirable. What is surprising is why one study cites girls tend to get higher scores than boys on the GCSE and could possibly do so for this widely used test. Is this because girls study more than boys during the school year? One UK study has evidence to support the theory that without distractions, girls at all-girl schools may outperform boys on tests such as the IELTS and possibly do better in certain classes.

IELTS isn't gender specific, results could be surprising

The IELTS can be given to anyone, so it is surprising that girls seem to do better on IELTS preparation and get highly sought-after marks. However, the study only sampled a small number of students within a certain age rank and only those who took the GSCE. According to this UK study, which followed tests scores of 700,000 attending same-sex schools found girls may outperform boys because they have fewer distractions. According to test results, girls at all-girl schools did more than 20 percent better than girls attending co-ed schools. In comparison, the more than 71,000 students at a co-ed school did 20 percent worse than girls at all-girl institutions.

While some officials say it is "interesting" that girls at a same-sex school are making more progress on the test, others are not surprised at the results at all. Some people speculate that girls are doing better than boys because they are not as easily distracted and there is a greater pressure to succeed among peers. Though some researchers decry the study, claiming gender has little place in education and others are sceptical because of the small study sampling, the result rouses different opinions. Some feel the sample is too small to accurately be able to predict how girls will perform on the IELTS exam when they have only been measured taking the GSCE and then only in small numbers. Did you know that there are roughly 3.5 million students attending schools in the UK? However, sampling only 700,000 girls is a very small percentage of the total number of students attending school. Could the results be significant? Some educators seem to think so. Others say more testing is needed and more research should be completed before making the leap to say girls do outperform boys taking the IELTS.

Whether you have attended an all-girls school or a co-ed school, Crest Schools can help prepare you for the job that you want in the near future. Are you simply a bad test-taker? Crest Schools has a lower student to teacher ratio so that you can get the expert help you need to do better on an International English Language Test or simply gain better English comprehension skills. Isn't it nice to attend a school where teachers offer additional help to students who are struggling to learn English very quickly? For more information about how we can help: visit us at: www.crestschools.com

For more information about english courses in uk, english language school in London, london english courses. Please visit: www.crestschools.com

About the Author

Crest Schools of English is a UK Border Agency (Ukba) Highly Trusted Sponsor and has been teaching English since 1983. To learn more on how we can help you succeed in learning English, visit us at: www.crestschools.com

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Author: Gabrielle Sudwarts

Gabrielle Sudwarts

Member since: Mar 04, 2014
Published articles: 5

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