Successful candidates become professeurs agrégés ([pʁɔfesœʁ(z‿)aɡʁeʒe]) and are usually appointed as teachers in secondary schools or preparatory classes, or as lecturers in universities.
Points obtained at each test are totaled, and candidates that meet the threshold set by the yearly quota are pronounced admissible by the jury.
While agrégés are expected to teach in sixth-form colleges (lycées) and universities and the certifiés in secondary schools (collèges), there is a significant overlap.
A few positions that include research activities, called agrégé préparateur, or AGPR, exist in the écoles normales supérieures.
Some anticonformist sociologists like Pierre Bourdieu have argued that this exam measures a candidate's social connections as much their ability to present a lesson, especially considering the composition of the examining committee.
[citation needed] In the movie L'Étudiante, a dramatic scene features Sophie Marceau undertaking the oral exam for the agrégation of Classic Literature.
[12] In the TV show The Bureau, Paul Lefebvre, one of the aliases of French spy Guillaume Debailly, played by Mathieu Kassovitz, holds the agrégation of Modern Literature.