Weighting given to final A-level exam will help boys

Boys will narrow the gap in performance between them and girls in this year's A-level results, it was forecast today.

They could match or even beat girls in the awarding of the new A* grade, according to Professor Alan Smithers, head of the Centre for Education and Employment at Buckingham University.

Boys tend to flourish when exams concentrate more on end -of-course tests or examinations. The last time they beat girls in the awarding of A-grade passes came in the year before new curriculum reforms put more emphasis on coursework, in 2000.

Now, though, the number of modules which go towards an A-level has been cut from six to four – with the result that more reliance will be placed on the end-of-course exam.

In addition, new open-ended questions have been introduced to stretch pupils' thinking skills, and the new A* grade is to be awarded to candidates gaining more than 90 per cent of marks in their A2 assignments – taken in the second year of the course,

"Boys tend to be happier with the end-of-course examinations than are girls," said Professor Smithers. "Girls lead the boys in performing more consistently over all the units of a course."

This Thursday's results will also see a bumper crop of A* grades being awarded to students taking maths and languages.

Overall, experts predict that "well over" 7 per cent of scripts, that is, completed exam papers, will be awarded an A* grade. That is the figure that would have gained an A* last year if it had been available, but academics say coaching for the new grade by teachers will push this figure higher.

In some subjects the percentage given the top grade is expected to inch towards 50 per cent.

Minority languages like Russian and Japanese – where the majority of candidates are native speakers – are expected to attract the highest percentage of A* grades. In Japanese, the figure could be 47 per cent.

However, even in more mainstream languages the figure is expected to be above the 7 per cent prediction, and in further mathematics, where again the candidates are likely to be more intensely interested in the subject they have chosen to study, the figure is also expected to be around one in four.

This year's results are likely to see a more modest increase in the percentage of youngsters getting A-grade or above passes, and in the pass rate as a whole. One of the subjects set to record the lowest percentage of A* passes is the new critical thinking paper.

A-level results have improved for the past 27 years. Last year 26.7 per cent of scripts were awarded an A grade, compared to just 8.9 per cent in 1982.