This is a comparative account of how the process of examinations and assessment procedures evolved in England and France. By tracing the similarities and differences between these systems, the book explores fundamental issues in the sociology of educational assessment. Questions explored in the book include: what are the roles played by assessment in modern education systems?; why do countries at broadly similar stages of post-industrial development have different assessment arrangements?; and what can a sociological study of educational assessment reveal about past, present and future societies and their education systems?