Cambridge Classics professor, Mary Beard, tells the intriguing story of the history of exams and asks what are exams really for. In her quest for an answer, she scales the rooftops of King's College, Cambridge, grills a well-known comedian in Latin and discovers Charles Darwin was a terrible student more interested in finding beetles than doing his exams.

Mary delves into the world of exams past and present in the company of comedian Richard Herring, roof-walker and academic, Katherine Rundell, fellow Classicist Simon Goldhill and others.

Producer: Adele Armstrong.