College Entrance Exam Report Shows Girls Are Better Scholars Than Boys

With its recent appearance, the Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of the College Entrance Examination Board showed the scholastic superiority of girls over boys in the continued decreases in the number of applicants, and the rapid fall in popularity of the old Plan "A", involving preliminary examination.

In 1936, 14,499 students took one or more of the exams as compared with 19,929 in 1932, and 15,394 in 1935. The number of books handed in dropped from 62,075 to 40,249. Major causes of this decline is the tendency of many colleges to take their applicants on the recommendation of the schools, and to allow the best scholars in each class to enter without examinations.

Plan "B" Success

The success of Plan "B" is assured. Although the number of applicants under it dropped from 10,141 to 9,124 in the last ten years, the number under the old plan fell from 11,587 to 4,972 in the same period.

In spite of the general decrease, there are some subjects which have fallen beyond proportion, as well as some which have only slipped slightly or even gained.

Notable among the tumblers are Ancient History, which fell from 1848 papers to 587 since 1932. Latin (9193 to 4572), and Mathematics (16,859 to 10,573).

Girls Beat Boys

The 5562 girls outstripped the 8937 boys in proficiency, averaging 66.3 per cent against the male 65.4 per cent. Girls reaped their success on the less straining subjects, mentally speaking. They averaged 73.1 per cent in English, while the boys struck a mean 59 per cent. The femallie 66 per cent in Ancient History was pretty mean too, but the mallic 55 per cent was meaner. Girls were slightly better at modern languages and boys at Latin.

In the more involved or technical studies, however, the best . . ., or rather the man, won.