Why do girls get lower SAT scores on average than boys?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>(The following are not absolutes for all, but there is enough of a tilt to make the numbers totally believable and understandable.)</p>

<p>First, many girls do not take the most difficult courses in order to get a higher GPA. Our valedictorian and other high-ranking girls who had almost a 4.0 took four majors instead of five, refused to take physics or anything else considered difficult that could ruin her cum (in our physics class, C was a good grade - one guy with that grade went to Johns Hopkins and excelled. I also find that boys get marked down if they are a little difficult to handle while more compliant girls sail through.</p>

<p>Second, boys excel in logic much more than girls. It is true objectively, and the well-publicized gender gap in politics where women accept the most illogical and nonsensical arguments would lend huge credence to that. Guys would ask how having more people on healthcare with many paying nothing would reduce costs for everyone. Think reductio ad absurdum. Girls would say we just have to care more and it will all work out. That mind of muddled thinking will not bode well for you taking the SAT.</p>

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<p>I just ready Audreyhill’s post. My sister is an MD and could memorize anything. Graduated summa cum laude. Could memorize the DNA molecule or a book of the BIble just like that. However, as for usable information outside her field, she stumbles ad I help her out. Our valedictorian could sightread Latin books in perfect English. I could not do that, but I am in a highly technical field where women tend not to do well. Viva la difference!</p>

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<p>But how does the SAT require logic and reasoning in ways that classroom tests don’t?</p>

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<p>How’d you do on the SAT, son? If there is indeed a penalty for muddled thinking then probably not so hot, judging from the above.</p>

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<p>The college board data shows that 100,000 more females took the exam than males (Around 900,000 to 8,000).</p>

<p>In Critical Reading, there is around the same gender ratio from 590 to 800, but increasingly more females in the lower categories. My hypothesis here is that more average and unqualified (100,000 more) female students were pushed to take the test than males were.</p>

<p>This analysis isn’t really fair to males, but if we dropped the bottom 100,000 females (under the assumption that they were low performers whole were pushed into taking the SAT under gender stereotypes, then recalculated the averages based on the gender totals for each subsection (i.e. 700-800, 600-690, etc), the female average for critical reading is 20 points higher (I’m too lazy to calculate the other 2 sections).</p>

<p>Unfortunately, that does not explain away the math discrepancy. Instead, view at the GPA charts for math. Math is the only subject where males outperformed females (by .01 GPA point). This does not show that males are inherently better at math, as many people on this thread seem to think. It instead shows that males are more pushed to do well in math. </p>

<p>As females outperformed males by around .2-.3 GPA points in every other subject, this shows that even under unfavorable conditions (Because everyone can agree they’re underperforming), males still do well in math. This shows, (based on the other data, including science), that males value math skills above other ones, and try to do well in math. They probably study much harder to get those extra .21 points. They also probably push themselves to get into more advanced math classes, and consider themselves valuable if they do well. </p>

<p>tl;dr, The ones who are taking the SAT are the ones who did well in math, whereas females consider themselves intellectually valuable even if they are terrible at math. Women are pushed to do poorly in math, with the same arguments asserted by 4/5 people on this thread.</p>

<p>Coincidentally, males also constitute 52% of scores from independent and religiously affiliated schools, and females 54% of scores from public schools. The independent schools do significantly better across the board (40CR, 78M, 65W), more than can be explained away by the gender statistic. As the majority of test takers from independent schools are male, even though 100,000 more females taking the test, the males who do take the test are educated in a higher income environment with more emphasis on education. It follows that they would do better on average.</p>

<p>Based on personal observation, male and female basic capacity in critical reading, math, and writing, is fairly similar, and differently weighted averages fail to reflect that.</p>

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<p>@Yleric - Or you know, Occam’s razor: guys are just better at math.</p>

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<p>I think this issue is overplayed.</p>

<p>There’s little discrepancy between male-female scores at the high end of the spectrum. 2200+/99th percentile. </p>

<p>You can see the gender breakdown here - </p>

<p><a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-Composite-CR-M-W-2013.pdf[/url]”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/SAT-Percentile-Ranks-Composite-CR-M-W-2013.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>On average, girls score slightly higher in writing, boys slightly higher in math. The SAT is really too basic and general of a test to bring up any significant gender differences. </p>

<p>As former teacher who’s taught ages 12-60, I can tell you that guys and girls (also kids vs. adults) definitely take different approaches to learning. But I don’t think you’ll find anything particularly interesting or scandalous as far as the SAT goes.</p>

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<p>I’m one of those girls who does great in reading and poorly in math. But you know what? I know plenty of girls who excel at it, and I know many that could out argue (using logic, not verbal superiority) many guys. I also know guys who can perform literary analysis better than most girls, and I know guys who are great at pure memorization but suck at application. To say “men are just better at reasoning than women” is such a poor claim because of a. all the socialization girls go through that discourages them from learning math skills (and thus analytical reasoning) and b. variation among groups. </p>

<p>More girls than guys take the SATs, not to mention that the gap between the scores and genders are small. As others said, girls that would probably do worse (and haven’t been enthusiastic about math all their lives but have, perhaps, been encouraged to read a lot) bring the score down because others encourage them to take it. This is supposedly as opposed to guys, who are probably more likely to take the SAT because <em>they</em> want to.</p>

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<p>It’s funny how girls make all sort of excuses for their lower test scores on the math and CR sections.</p>

<p>I wonder if anyone would justify the boy’s lower writing scores with silly excuses.</p>

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<p>Okay…so if people say “men and GENERALLY better at reasoning than women,” does that work? It is true. Guys are generally better at math. Oh well.</p>

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<p>Girls tend to overachieve in school settings, whereas boys underachieve. </p>

<p>The SAT is an aptitude test. You can’t overachieve on those. </p>

<p>And for all those who say men and women are equally intelligent, that’s utter hogwash. Now I’m no evolutionary biologist, but there’s NO WAY natural selection crafted identical brains for the males and females. You need to be a cunning, quick thinker who can recognize patterns to hunt deadly game. You don’t need to think quickly to determine which male in the tribe is the best to mate with. But you do need to have a good memory to remember which berries are safe to eat. </p>

<p>Now I’m no anthropologist, so I don’t know exactly which sexes did exactly what things, but it’s safe to say they weren’t doing the same things.</p>

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<p>Um, this isn’t true? My friend who’s a girl missed two of the math questions on the SAT and I missed 1. We both got a 770.</p>

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Occam’s Razor is finding the simplest explanation taking into consideration all the evidence. And it doesn’t discount analysis. I’ld say the ratio of males to females is important.</p>

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I really doubt that. I’ve heard it being said numerous times, but it seems to be one of those things that people assume to be true. Women aren’t pushed to do badly in math. Just like guys aren’t pushed to do badly in humanities subjects. To say that girls are discouraged from doing well in math has nothing to back it up. People are usually told to do the best that they can in everything.</p>

<p>Guys are generally better at STEM, and girls are generally better at humanities.
The real question is, why do people look down on humanities so much? Why is logic so superior? Men and women generally tend to have different kinds of intelligence (though obviously, that doesn’t apply to everyone). Intelligence in logical reasoning isn’t better than all others.</p>

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<p>Since when are the humanities inherently illogical? If someone believes that I can see why they wouldn’t like the humanities. But valid reasoning is (or should be) an important part of almost everything we do. </p>

<p>People value science more because it’s easier to see how it’s useful. The benefits of studying the humanities are usually a lot less direct/tangible.</p>

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<p>@C2E57M
Except in other places, girls perform as well as guys do in math. Although saying “generally” is a bit better!</p>

<p>There are many studies showing that when girls are reminded of their gender they perform worse on math tests, and there are studies that show that girls and guys can perform the same. They’re out there, look them up if you want. </p>

<p>Finally I can’t say anything about men being discouraged from the humanities, except perhaps that humanities pay less and since guys are still (sadly) expected to be the primary income, they don’t even consider such fields? Just a guess. It seems like in my area anyway, parents would be a lot more likely to approve of their daughter saying “Mom, I want to go to art school!” than their son. </p>

<p>Bottom line is, the SAT is one test. There are lots of factors that can contribute to scores. And why aren’t we debating whether the writing section is sexist against guys?</p>