State Exam follows a group of young congolese high school students who are about to sit the exam for their National Diploma, the equivalent of the French Baccalaureat, in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. The director's camera films them as they prepare the exam, from the benches of the school that they are regurlarly ejected from because they haven't paid the teacher's fees to the communal house where they gather to revise and the chaotic streets of the city where they spend their time looking for a living.