Boys are starting to challenge girls over the star roles in exams

For the first time since the introduction of the A* grade, boys did better than girls.

The A* grade was brought in two years ago to reward the very brightest students and out of the total number of male entries, eight per cent were awarded the A*, compared with 7.9 per cent of girls. Girls were given more A grades, however, with 27 per cent of all their entries getting A*-A grades compared with 25.8 per cent given to boys’ entries.

The gap between the genders was even more noticeable when looking at A*-B grades, with 54.7 per cent of girls’ exams achieving that level and 50.2 per cent of boys’ papers.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “A lot has been said about the gender gap and that message has obviously got through. Teachers have focused on boys’ achievement.”

He said there was more of an emphasis on the jobs market and students were considering that when sitting their A-levels.

Mr Lightman added: “Boys focus on short-term goals and see they need good grades. They will focus on that and that’s good.

“It’s nice to see that boys and girls are almost neck-and-neck now. The figures also showed a marked contrast in the type of subjects taken by boys and girls.

The subjects with the highest proportion of girls included performing arts and sociology whie subjects popular with boys included computing and sciences.