A sarcastic comment on the horrors of school, unexpectedly hidden away in the 1986 book A handbook of test construction: introduction to psychometric design by Paul Kline.
A test is said to be face valid if it appears to measure what it purports to measure, especially to subjects. Face validity bears no relation to true validity and is important only in so far as adults will generally not co-operate on tests that lack face validity, regarding them as silly and insulting. Children, used to school, are not quite so fussy.
Link to psychometric snark.
Mind Hacks 
The concept of “face validity”
evokes the long running, UK, ad campaign for Ronseal (who make varnish with labels saying things like “dry in 12 hours”) – “it does what it says on the tin”.
In the interests of fairness and impartiality I’d like to say that other varnishes are available.