Gender Differences in Test Results

Stage, C. 1988. Gender Differences in Test Results. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 32, 101‐111. The Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SSAT) has been in use since 1977 for selecting candidates for higher education. In this study the results on the tests administered from Spring 1984 through Fall 1986 were analyzed with regard to gender differences at item level. In accordance with the size of the p‐ differences between males and females the items were divided into seven categories. For four of the six subtests the differences were found to be related to the subject content of the items. This was true both for knowledge items and items which measured the ability to find or comprehend given information. The two quantitative subtests, however, did not follow the same pattern, since neither subject content nor mathematical content seemed to be related to the gender‐based item differences.