Abstract: Students’ examinations performance is a great challenge as far as quality education is concerned. The study on the implications of primary school categories and gender on pupils’ examination performance was conducted in Maswa district because is one the districts in Tanzania where pupils were doing badly in standard seven examinations. Specifically, the study compared pupils mean score in terminal and annual examinations, and examined pupils’ academic performance by school type and gender. The study involved 138 respondents who were randomly selected from four primary schools. Data from respondent were collected through structured interviews and focus group discussions. Collected data were processed and analysed using SPSS version 16 computing descriptive statistics get distributions (frequencies and percentages), means and standard deviations. Correlation analysis was also done to capture relationship between distance to schools and pupils’ examination performance. The study observed significant difference in performance between female and male pupils in examination performance and a positive relationship between pupils’ examination performance and type of school. The study therefore, recommends that school girls should be given ample time to revise what they learn at school and community members should find means of constructing school dormitories for pupils, since boarding pupils seem to academically perform better than day school pupils.