Until the start of the new millennium the literature on gender inequality in education stated that all aspects of education were disadvantaging women (Jacobs, 1996). Although girls have long gotten better grades in school than boys, most researchers brushed aside this point because women did not translate their performance into higher levels of educational attainment relative to men (Mickelson, 1989). Now, women have come to outnumber men among new college graduates in most industrialized societies, and new questions about gender inequalities in education have emerged.

The question “who is doing better at school?” cannot be answered unambiguously and depends on the specific outcome under study. While girls perform better than boys in terms of grades, boys tend to outperform girls in terms of test scores. The two measures capture different elements of academic performance and ability (Duckworth & Seligman, 2006).

Willingham and Cole (1997) have pointed out that boys tend to excel on multiple choice questions, the most prevalent format for standardized tests, whereas girls outperform boys on free-response (e.g., essay) assessments. This explanation is consistent with the finding that girls surpass boys on tests of grammar and spelling (Dahl, 2012). A gender gap was found in the tendency to omit items and to guess in multiple choice tests. Greater omission rates among girls was revealed in all test batteries (Ben-Shakhar, 1991; Marin & Rosa-Garcia, 2011).

An alternative explanation holds that female students feel more confident when answering questions about familiar material but are discouraged by the novel problems presented on standardized tests (Kimball, 1989). Indeed, research has found that gender differentials increase with the complexity of the standardized test (Hyde et al., 2008).

The explanations, however, do not address why female students bring home better report cards. Some researchers have suggested that overachieving girls may result from female college students’ choosing easier courses with more lenient grading systems (Duckworth & Seligman, 2006). That reasoning is rejected by others who point to the finding that girls reach grades as early as elementary school where most students take identical courses. Stricker et al. (1993) found that adding self-report variables tapping academic preparation and studiousness significantly reduced the gender differences in a study of eight grade students.

This paper will tackle the question about gender inequalities in test performance of very high educated students who aspire to be a physician. To enroll in medical education in Flanders youngsters have to pass an entrance exam. this is a multiple choice test with a correction for guessing. The difficulty level is extremely high, only 15% of the candidates passes the test. Candidates spend a lot of time preparing the test and universities organize special courses to prepare the students for the very hard scientific test. As expected because of the test setting and the high degree of difficulty, girls report lower success rates for this test than boys.

This paper improves upon the existing literature on gender inequality in test performances because of the unique composition of the test. The test contains two parts: a test for knowledge of science and mathematics (traditional male skills), and a test for social skills, memory and reading skills (traditional female skills). This research wants to answer following questions: (1) is the gender bias different for the two parts of the test, (2) can we reduce the gender gap by considering relevant intermediary parameters, (3) which part of the gender gap can be explained by the multiple choice structure of the test.

Ben-Shakhar, G., & Sinai, Y. (1991). Gender differences in multiple-choice tests: the role of differential guessing tendencies. Journal of Educational Measurement, 28(1), 23–35. Dahl, R. (2012). The Writing Process : Are there any differences between boys’ and girls’ writing in English? Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. (2006). Self-discipline gives girls the edge: Gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 198. Hyde, J. S., Lindberg, S. M., Linn, M. C., Ellis, A. B., & Williams, C. C. (2008). Gender similarities characterize math performance. Science, 321(5888), 494–495. Jacobs, J. A. (1996). Gender inequality and higher education. Annual Review of Sociology, 153–185. Kimball, M. M. (1989). A new perspective on women’s math achievement. Psychological Bulletin, 105(2), 198. Marín, C., & Rosa-García, A. (2011). Gender bias in risk aversion: evidence from multiple choice exams. Mickelson, R. A. (1989). Why does Jane read and write so well? The anomaly of women’s achievement. Sociology of Education, 47–63. Stricker, L. J., Rock, D. A., & Burton, N. W. (1993). Sex differences in predictions of college grades from scholastic aptitude test scores. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(4), 710. Willingham, W. W., & Cole, N. S. (1997). Gender and fair assessment. Psychology Press.