Men score higher on psychometric test, report says
Report from National Institute for Testing and Evaluation shows that in 2011, more women than men took the test but that men, on average, scored 43 points higher
More women than men take the psychometric exam, but on average men score higher, according to a report by the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation for 2011 published Tuesday evening.
The report noted that 56% of the test-takers were women, and that the average score for men (561) was 43 points higher than the average score for women (518.)
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The gap in men's and women's psychometric scores was similar to that found in previous years. The center explained that the difference in results can be partly attributed to the fact that more women take the test than men, meaning that the number of women includes a higher number of individuals with lower abilities.
A total 76,395 people took the test last year, compared to 72,772 in 2010. The average score was 534, a point lower than the average score in 2010.
Slightly fewer than 50,000 people took the test in Hebrew, while 23,547 sat for the exam in Arabic. 2,379 took it in Russian and 1,571 took the test in other languages. Examination of the matriculation results shows that the Arabic speakers achieved the highest results (89), followed by Hebrew speakers (87) and Russian speakers (85.)
"The institute's data reflects what we see among students taking the prep course," attorney Eran Stein, CEO of Smart Psychometric, said. "We can also see that the decline in recent years in the number of people taking the test has halted, and we're back at the numbers of five years ago."
Stein said that in recent months, his business had seen a sharp increase in enrollment for summer prep courses, due to students wanting to take the test before the format is changed to include an essay.
Osnat Haber-Koton, CEO of Ankori – another chain of psychometric prep schools – added that "according to our data, disadvantaged group are taking the test several times to improve their grades, and there are at least three times as many 'return test-takers' in Arabic than in Hebrew. Unfortunately, the institute doesn't put enough resources into closing the gap."
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