Testosterone is a hormone that is important for male reproductive development.

To which group of compounds does testosterone belong?

A. Nucleotides

B. Carbohydrates

C. Lipids

D. Amino acids

C

The guidance for sub-topic 2.1 of the program states that candidates should be able to identify steroids as lipids from molecular diagrams. The task of identifying a testosterone molecule as a lipid was therefore reasonable, but fewer than 30 % of SL candidates answered correctly and the low discrimination index shows that some of the stronger candidates were unsuccessful. Substantial numbers of candidates chose each of the distractors, showing that they thought the molecule was a nucleotide, carbohydrate or amino acid.