Gender Differences in Intelligence in a Sample of 5-12 Year Olds in Sudan

The Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM), a non-verbal reasoning test for children, was administered to a sample of 4785 primary school students aged 5-12 years in Sudan. Girls obtained higher average scores equivalent to an IQ difference of 3.56 points and showed greater variability than boys. Comparison with scores obtained in a similar study performed in the same area in 2004 shows that the female advantage that is presently seen is a recent phenomenon, and that boys scored higher than girls in the earlier study.