BOYS are closing the performance gap on girls, according to the latest A Level results.

Experts believe a move back to more traditional examinations could be helping.

As pupils across the country collected their results, it emerged that male students are catching up with their female counterparts at A to E grades.

While girls are still outperforming boys in every major subject except for modern languages and further maths, boys have closed the gap in passes (A-E) to just 1.3%.

Further maths was a particular success area for male candidates, as boys saw an increase in the proportion getting As while the percentage of girls scoring the top grade slipped.

Spanish, German, French and Welsh all saw boys doing better both at A and across all grades.

But across the exams as a whole, girls are still getting more As, with 26.5% of female entries achieving the top standard, compared with 23.9% of boys.

The gap between the sexes at A grade remains the same as last year.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the narrowing of the gender gap was a positive result after schools put additional resources into improving boys performance.

He said: "One also has to look at the style of examining and the fact that examining is shifting more back to end-of-course exams which tend to be more suited to boys.

"The move towards coursework was a major contributory factor in girls doing so much better and I think were now seeing a move away from coursework back to more traditional exams and I think that will create a trend for improving boys results."

* What do you think of today's exams? Are they easier or are our kids brainer? have your say below: