The laddish culture of ignoring homework, studying in short bursts and seeking immediate gratification are reasons being cited for boys' underperformance in the Leaving Cert.
According to Mr John MacGabhann of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, boys are as smart but they don't know how to apply themselves consistently.
They are also more likely to enjoy courses where they see an immediate result, where girls are more likely to do well in English essays, where abstract concepts are rewarded.
While educationalists may philosophise about the cause of boys' fall from academic dominance, the trend of girls outperforming them in exams continues. Again this year, girls achieved better results at both higher and ordinary levels.
In Irish, girls were four points ahead of boys, with 81 per cent getting honours at higher level compared to 77 per cent of boys.
The gap was wider in English, where 78 per cent of girls got honours at higher level compared to 72 per cent of boys. Art and home economics had the greatest discrepancies, with 10 percentage points separating the genders.
Girls are even doing better than boys in traditional boys' subjects such as maths, physics, biology and chemistry.
The only subjects where boys do better are those in which very few girls participate, such as agricultural science, agricultural economics, engineering and technical drawing.
One explanation, said Mr MacGabhann, is that more girls take honours-level exams. Another is that girls are far more likely to study consistently during the Leaving Cert year, while boys tend to study in bursts, a less effective method.
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report recently found that Ireland ranks second in the world in children's reading ability and girls outperform boys by one-third in this area.
So it isn't only the Leaving Cert where the gender difference is apparent.
At ordinary level, the gap between boys and girls is even greater, with girls scoring 11 percentage points higher in classical studies, 10 points higher in Irish, nine points higher in chemistry and seven points higher in maths.
Yet, in history, boys score five percentage points more than girls at ordinary level. In engineering at ordinary level, boys outperform girls by an impressive 15.5 percentage points.
So what's going on?
Mr MacGabhann suggests that boys do better in subjects with immediate results, such as engineering where it is possible to see practical results.
He also suggests that in more academic subjects boys may be losing out as early as Junior Cert level, when schools "stream" students into ordinary and higher classes. More girls have the benefit of being in honours classes in fifth and sixth year. Less may be expected of boys because they mature later, and thus they perform less well in the Junior Cert.
Whatever the reason for the discrepancy, it concerns parents and teachers alike. Boys need to be engaged at a practical level to succeed, Mr MacGabhann said.
In New Zealand, educators have had some success with engaging boys in education through tactile and sensory methods. Instead of blaming them for not paying attention, teachers in one project decided to make the most of boys' short attention spans by giving them plenty of active breaks.
They let them study in short bursts and gave them immediate rewards. Expecting more from them and providing them with strong role models also helped.
The seeming inability of boys to keep up with girls academically is reflected throughout the Western world. Yet, three of this year's four top achievers in the Leaving Cert were boys.
At A1 level, the gap between boys and girls is quite narrow. For example, in accountancy at higher level, 9.2 per cent of girls and 8.5 per cent of boys got A1s. In English, girls outperformed boys by one point and in higher- level maths, girls got far fewer A1s - 4.5 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent.
Boys are as bright as girls, but they need to be taught how to concentrate so they can achieve at higher levels in exams.