Not surprisingly, the highest-scoring students had well-educated parents or came from homes containing study-aids such as computers, dictionaries or (1)______________________.
The study shows that boys generally did better than girls in science, but there was little difference between them in maths. Boys scored better than girls in physics and chemistry. There were (2)____________________and environmental sciences. In addition to being tested, students in the project were asked how proficient they thought they were in maths 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 (3)______________________they did far better in maths than almost all of other students.