Table 1 Comparison between the Physics Olympiad population and our study sample for all four competition rounds

Physics Olympiad population

Number of students

931

406

53

15

Mean age (SD)

16.3 (1.1)

16.3 (1.0)

16.7 (0.8)

16.5 (0.8)

Gender ratio (male/female)

0.72/0.28

0.73/0.27

0.89/0.11

0.93/0.07

Study sample

Number of students

136

77

14

3

Mean age (SD)

16.2 (1.1)

16.3 (1.0)

16.5 (0.5)

16.3 (0.6)

Gender ratio (male/female)

0.70/0.30

0.74/0.26

0.79/0.21

0.67/0.33