Revealed academic preferences and gender via AP tests

Fascinating. What Do AP Subject Exams Tell Us About Differences in Academic Interest By Gender? by Mark J. Perry.

1. Of the 35 AP subjects, female high students were over-represented in 20 subjects, male students were over-represented in 14 subjects and one subject (Latin) was perfectly balanced by gender.

2. In the science area, female students showed a greater interest in biology (59%) and environmental science (56%) than males, and males showed a greater interest in chemistry (47%)[sic should be 53%] and physics (65%).

3. For mathematics subjects, female high school students were slightly over-represented in statistics (52%) and males were slightly over-represented in calculus (51%). For advanced calculus, male students were over-represented at 59%.

4. For all languages except German, more female students took language AP exams than males, and for French, female students outnumbered male students by more than 2-to-1.

5. Male high school students were significantly over-represented in all three physics exams, and both computer science exams.

Not completely unexpected to see differences by gender at these early ages (basically 15-18) but still striking just how sizeable those differences are at so early an age. Can it only be social norms that lead to these differences? I was struck also by the French and German AP results. I learned both French and German and took to German much more happily than to French and learned more in less time. Just me or some genetic orientation?