[originaltext] The world’s smartest adolescents in mathematics and science

The world’s smartest adolescents in mathematics and science are in Singapore, according to a global survey of educational achievement. In the 3rd International Mathematics and Science Study, 13-year-olds from Singapore achieved the-best scores in standardized tests of math and science that were administered to 287,896 students in 41 countries in 1994 and 1995．The survey suggests that science and math education is especially strong in the Far East, while well behind those top scores, students from Australia earned higher marks in math than their counterparts in England, who in turn did better than American students. The study collected information on the students’ teachers and homes. Not surprisingly, the highest-scoring students had well-educated parents or came from homes containing studying aids such as computers, dictionaries or even such elemental facilities as desks. The study shows that boys generally did better than girls in science, but there was little difference between them in math. Boys scored better than girls in physics and chemistry. There were no sex differences in the life and environmental sciences. In addition to being tested, students in the project were asked how proficient they thought they were in math and science. Students in some countries, such as Columbia and Kuwait, had an overly optimistic view of their skills. Meanwhile, some of the best students from Japan and Korea, for example, were needlessly pessimistic even though they did far better in math than almost all of the other students.