Once when I was in High School, there was a test that had a fat block of instructions at the top. But buried in those instructions it said "You don't need to write any answers, just write your name and hand the instructor the test, and you will receive 100% credit." It was more a test to see if people would read and follow instructions than it was for knowledge. Needless to say, many people did not get 100% credit.
I can only guess that job applications are like that test in this regard.
I had something like that in military school except it was group graded...and we couldn't talk, so once myself and like 5 others saw the instructions, we watched the others 25 finish the test. We got lit up for the worst class out of 5 in the current year.
We had this kind of test, too. I guess it's a popular way of teaching this lesson of "read the whole f*cking instructions! That's why someone wrote them down for you!"