Help me understand this Nutrition question

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Specializes in MedSurg, Clinic, ER.

Took a quiz in Nutrition today and missed the following question. I challenged the 'correct' answer because I understood it to be asking for something very specific, other than what the 'correct' answer offered. My instructor said I was over-thinking the questions and that it might hinder me on exams. This has me worried because failure is just not an option for me. So, please read the question, followed by my supporting evidence and help me understand what I am missing?

Question -

Glucose is metabolized -

A. in the form of glycogen (noted as 'correct' by the quiz)

B. by combining it with fat

C. exclusively in the liver

D. in the body cells (what I chose and believe to be the correct answer)

All carbohydrates are changed to the simple sugar glucose before metabolism can take place in the cells. -p87 under the heading Metabolism and Elimination

Glucose is converted to glycogen for storage in the liver, but must be converted back to glucose prior to release for metabolism by cells. Actual metabolism of glucose occurs in the cells, though, for energy.

Any insight y'all can offer will be greatly appreciated. My confidence is wavering right now because I thought I understood completely... ack...:uhoh3: If I am overthinking, how do I fix that... (I'm sure I'm not the first nursing student to have horrible test anxiety over the questions themselves... I know the material, I think... but oi the questions!)

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I'm sorry I can't help, I would have answered the same as you. I hope someone else has a rationale, now I'm worried- my first exam is in three hours.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

You can't control poorly written test items (I'm a MSN Ed student). Your instructor's answer is probably a standard reply rather than considering that his/her question might be the problem. You understand glucose just fine. Options A and D could both be argued to be correct although I agree with you that D is better. What should have been written is -glucose is metabolized A) "into glycogen". That would at least make option A correct, although option D should be changed so it could not be confused with the correct answer. You will see the occasional question like this even on the NCLEX. Questions are hard to get just right sometimes. If this was the only question like this and you still passed don't sweat it. Don't "overthink" overthinking. Your goal is to pass in school, but don't try to be perfect. This caused you to go back to the book and check your knowledge so you reinforced your prior learning and gained valuable insight. If this question was really pivotal in causing you to fail, there might be a process to appeal it, but otherwise realize that your instructors are not perfect and you can't always get every question correct even if you have the knowledge. Best of luck!

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Specializes in MedSurg, Clinic, ER.

Thank you... I understand how option a could be correct now... I do have a tendency to overthink things, so my initial reaction was :uhoh3: panic. I went for the literal definition of metabolism and figured it was an easy question... in other words, I thought I didn't overthink this one... and if I was overthinking when I thought I wasn't then oh no... lol

ahhh.... how's that for overthinking overthinking?

thank you for the insight... it really helps... and I do need to chill out on the striving for perfection a little bit... this one missed question was my first missed quiz point of 40 so far.. lol need to relax a little...

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Specializes in Infusion.

First, I want to apologize to my nutrition instructor. Second, I thought my nutrition tests had been dumbed down quite a bit because there were no prerequisites for the class. So often, the instructor would use phrases on the tests from the textbook and it was more about memory of "book" terms rather than critical thinking. So.... my advice, stop thinking so much and write down or highlight definitions in the book and pay attention to wording. You are both right. I wish your instructor had used a word like catabolism. Then you might have understood where he/she was going.

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Specializes in MedSurg, Clinic, ER.

Interesting perspective... thank you for sharing it. I do agree that different wording would have made the question clear. Fortunately, most of the questions require some degree of thought to answer them... Unfortunately, in this case, I believe thought is what tripped me up. :) It is still possible that my challenge will be decided favorably... but in the mean time, I need to figure out a strategy for these quizzes. LOL

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Because you received some excellent answers here, I'll just rant away with you...

That question just sucks! I never would have chosen glycogen with the way the question was worded. I have run into at least one question like that on each test, and it annoys me so much! It also seems to come out of nowhere...it's the questions I'm most confident on that it seems to occur with. Often, the best students in class miss it too.

I can't help but think that the teacher keys in the wrong answer and just doesn't 'fess up to it.

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