The 2015 Leaving Certificate once again sees girls outperform boys in their results, and according to the State Examinations Commission(SEC) there are some major differences in between male and female students this year in both higher and ordinary papers.

Like last year’s statistics, girls outperformed boys in most subjects including English and Irish however, again, like previous years, boys outperformed girls in maths. Here are some of the statistics available from the SEC:

Girls scored better in Higher Level Irish with 7% scoring an A1 compared to 5.2% in boys.
Once again girls did better in English as seen in previous years with 3.5% achieving A1 in Higher level compared to 2.8% of boys.
In maths, boys did exceedingly better in Higher paper with 6.9% achieving an A1 compared to 3.1% of girls., almost double the percentage.
Girls scored better in most other subjects including history and geography, art and languages in both Higher and Ordinary level. See all statistics here.

Although more girls took science subjects this year, in Chemistry and Physics males did slightly better in scoring the highest grade with 13.2% scoring A1s in the 2015 paper.


Some of the many reasons for the gender difference in Leaving Certificate grades has been attributed to girls spending more time doing homework, whereas boys have less positive attitude to school than girls.

For your complete guide, advice and resources for Leaving Certificate Results 2015, for both parents and teens, see our dedicated page.

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