Study says US-style aptitude tests could help top universities select candidates, writes TIM ROSS

A new US-style reasoning test for sixth-formers could help more men get into top universities, according to a Government report. The SAT, widely used in American colleges, has the potential to make it easier for elite universities to identify the brightest students from thousands who score straight As at A-level, the study said.

The biggest beneficiaries from introducing the test in Britain would be men, at a time when undergraduate courses are increasingly dominated by women. The findings came in the first report of a major investigation into the validity of asking university applicants to sit the academic aptitude tests.

A team from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) followed 9,000 students who completed the SAT Reasoning Test, which was developed in the US and previously known as the Scholastic Assessment Test.

The test, which takes 3hrs 45mins, measures verbal and mathematical reasoning and attempts to assess the skills students will need for success at university.

The NFER report said: "Amongst a sub-sample of students with three or more A grades at A-level there were wide variations in SAT scores. This suggests that the SAT might offer scope for distinguishing between candidates with similarly high A-level grades.

"Some students who might have failed to gain admission to the most prestigious universities on the basis of their A-level grades nevertheless achieved scores in the top 15 per cent or even top five per cent of SAT scores.

"On the basis of the current analysis, the sub-group of potentially able students who might benefit most from the SAT would be male students."

Sixth-form boys who took the test tended to do better at the maths questions, while girls scored "significantly higher" on the SAT writing component, the report said.

Overall, boys and white students performed better than girls, students from some ethnic minorities, those who do not speak English as their first language and students with special needs.

The findings follow concern at the widening gender gap in higher education.

Last year, 57 per cent of first degree graduates were women and 22,500 more young women than men won university places. Officials have warned that men could find themselves marginalised in the jobs market as employers increasingly look to hire staff with degrees.

The Department for Education commissioned the research amid concerns that so many sixth-formers now score top grades at A-level that universities find it increasingly difficult to pick the best candidates.

But the Sutton Trust education charity, which is co-funding the project, said the early findings were encouraging.

Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: "The first preliminary results are encouraging in that they suggest that the SAT might be useful in distinguishing between those who achieved three or more grades at A-level."

"It is also interesting that students who achieved high SAT scores were not always the same as those who achieved high A-level grades, and this was particularly the case among male students."Sir Peter said earlier research suggested that the SAT could help identify more good students from poor state schools.

With so many sixth-formers getting straight As at A-Level Oxford University is introducing aptitude tests in some of the most popular subjects.

The tests will be in maths, computer sciences, English and probably PPE (philosophy, politics and economics). Candidates already sit entrance tests in history, law and medicine.