A study that was carried out by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found out that girls and boys have similar scores at math tests, contrary to common belief. Even though this study has little chance to change what most people think, which is that girls don't have the same natural abilities as boys when it comes to math, it surely should lead counselors and teachers to change the way they think about the matter.

A similar study that was conducted 20 years ago found that girls were likely to have worse results in math and physics than boys. However, during the last several years, more and more girls have started taking math classes, which researchers consider to be the explanation for the results of their study.

What this means is that it is more likely that sociological factors as well as the background and the education of people are the causes of the gap that was discovered 20 years ago, and not gender. This idea is also backed up by another finding of the study. It seems that twice as many white boys had higher marks in these tests than white girls. On the other hand, the proportion was almost opposite when it came to Asian Americans.

The study did discover a thing that should make people think whether the standardized tests that are given to high school students are good or not. Not one of the questions that were comprised in the tests involved complex problem solving. This might determine teachers not to tell their students how these problems can be solved, which might lead to high school graduates being less prepared for their advanced math classes in college.