Comparison of exam performance in college physics subjects of male and female students

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the performance of male and female students in introductory college physics classes particularly in i) mechanics of particles, rigid bodies, and fluids (Physics 71) and ii) fundamentals of thermodynamics, relativity, quantum mechanics, and elementary particles (Physics 73). This is done by evaluating the four exam scores of students of National Institute of Physics per semester using paired Student's t-test. Exam scores of male students are found significantly higher than female students in Physics 71 but there is no significant difference in Physics 73 (at significant level p < 0.05). Thus, the difference of performance of male and female students in physics depends on course description or specific topic.