Are girls more intelligent and hardworking than boys? Perhaps ‘Yes’, if the results of 2010 Board of Intermediate final examination in Andhra Pradesh are any indication. The girl students outperformed boys in the second year Inter examinations this year too like the previous years.

According to Minister for Primary Education Manikya Vara Prasada Rao, 65% of Intermediate candidates cleared the examination this year. The pass percentage was 60.15% last year, he pointed out.

The pass percentage of girls this year is 67 and that of boys is 63. Although, we cannot attribute any reason for the high score of girls, we can deduce that the girls must have put in hard work and spent more quality time in studies. Boys, in general, are keen on extra-curricular activities and might have spent less quality time preparing for examinations than their counterparts. Focused study, concentration and hard work, in general, play a crucial role in the performance levels of students.

Of the 9,17,794 candidates who took the examinations, 4,50,248 succeeded this year. The students of government junior colleges performed well this year too. As many as 1,82,408 students were awarded A grade, 1,65,002 B grade, 78,509 C grade and 24,329 candidates secured D grade this year.

Last year, 6,60,341 students appeared for the Intermediate examinations and 3,97,170 successfully completed their Intermediate. The pass percentage of Intermediate second year candidates in March 2009 stood at 60.15.

Krishna district topped the list with 77% pass followed by Nizamabad with 75% and Rangareddydistrict with 73%. Anantapur district occupied the last position among the districts in terms of number and percentage of pass.

Intermediate education in Andhra Pradesh revolves around EAMCET, which is the gateway to enter various professional colleges. With the Government deciding to accord 25% weightage to Intermediate marks for consideration in EAMCET with effect from 2008-09, girl students will certainly have an edge over boys proportionately in the engineering and medical seats from this session onwards, because the girls have outnumbered the boys in the results.

The Y S Rajasekhar Reddy government had decided to increase the 25% weightage of Intermediate marks to 50% in the 2010-11 academic session. The original intention was to increase the weightage for Inter marks by 25% every year and ultimately abolish the EAMCET altogether in four years’ time. However, for unknown reasons, the move has not been implemented this time.With more than 4.5 lakh students securing pass in the Inter examinations, many colleges hope their financial position would improve this year. Last year the inter pass percent was around 60% and a significant number of seats had fallen vacant. This year, the seat occupancy figures in colleges may go up, thanks to the five percent increase in the pass percentage.

When it comes to ranks, girls have again secured top ranks in MPC (mathematics, physics and chemistry) and BiPC (biology, physics and chemistry) streams this year, outnumbering their male counterparts.

The topper among girls from the MPC stream is Shehnaz of Krishnaveni Junior College in Kothagudem in Khammam district who scored 992 marks out of 1000. Srilatha scored 990 marks giving a close competition to Shehnaz.

However, with regard to the BiPC stream, PY Sunitha of Vikas Junior College in Nandyal got the highest marks  (989 out of 1000). Archana stood second by scoring 987 marks.

Corporate colleges have performed better this year.  The success can be attributed to better focus on academics in the wake of the government decision to accord 25% weightage to Inter marks during EAMCET. Secondly, the number of students who joined corporate colleges in 2008-09 had fallen marginally due to a fall in the percentage of SSC results of 2008. Hence the attention to quality might have surged with the dwindled student strength in colleges.

Among the Chaitanya Educational Institutions, B.V.N. Mounica scored 989 marks followed by S.B.N. Kishore (987) in the MPC stream. In the BiPC group, N. Kiranmayee topped with 985 marks followed by P.V. Swetha (983). In the MEC group, H. Vidya secured highest marks in the State scoring 963.

The Narayana college students, however, came out in flying colours with more than 186 students securing 975 or above marks. In the MPC stream, S. Sneha secured 986 followed by Sk. Aasif Ahmed (985), Santoshi Sushmitha (985) and Raja Venkat Vishwanatha (984). In the BiPC stream, C. Madhuri got 983 followed by K. Pratyusha (980) and Amulya Reddy (980). About 33% of Narayana students scored 986 and above, while 40% of students scored 985 marks.