Validity of an assessment is the degree to which it measures what it is supposed to measure.

This is not the same as reliability, which is the extent to which a measurement gives results that are consistent. Within validity, the measurement does not always have to be similar, as it does in reliability. When a measure i s both valid and reliable, the results will appear as in the image to the right. Though, just because a measure is reliable, it is not necessarily valid (and vi ce-versa). Validity is also dependent on the measurement measuring what it was d esigned to measure, and not something else instead.[2] Validity (similar to reli ability) is based on matters of degrees; validity is not an all or nothing idea. There are many different types of validity.