UK: A-levels: Boys close the gap on girls in key subjects

Article here. Excerpt:

'Boys have dramatically closed the performance gap between them and girls as a result of knuckling down to exams because of the recession, yesterday's A-level results show.

Exam boards officers said they had heeded calls to study subjects like maths and science to get ahead in the search for for jobs.

Figures show that girls are at level-pegging in the percentage of A* grades they have notched up – with 8.2 per cent being awarded the top grade pass. Last year girls were 0.4 per ahead of boys.

Andrew Hall, chief executive of the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, the country's biggest exam board, said boys had "recognised the challenge of A* grades" as a growing number of universities insisted on all candidates having at least one top grade pass.'