Australian Year 4 and Year 8 students' achievements in mathematics and science have remained much the same over the past eight years while a number of other countries have made substantial improvements over the same time, raising their position relative to that of Australia, according to this new research from the TIMSS study. In science at Year 8 boys were found to be outscoring girls by a significant 20 points - a shift from the results of the previous study in 1994-95, when no significant gender difference was found at Year 8.