Tendon

In the syllabus and the exam

Tendon is tested within support and movement as the structure that physically links a contracting muscle to the bone it moves, and candidates must be able to distinguish it clearly from a ligament, which connects bone to bone rather than muscle to bone. Exam questions typically present a labelled diagram of a joint such as the elbow or knee and ask candidates to identify the tendon and to explain its function in one sentence, usually along the lines of it transmits the force of muscle contraction to the bone, allowing movement. Because a tendon is made of tough, largely inelastic fibrous tissue, candidates are also expected to know that this lack of stretch is functionally important: an elastic tendon would waste some of the muscle's pulling force instead of transferring it efficiently to the skeleton. The most common error is swapping tendon and ligament in a labelling question, or describing a tendon as connecting two bones. A second frequent mistake is claiming that a tendon itself contracts; only the muscle contracts, while the tendon's role is purely to transmit that pull, not to generate any force of its own. Candidates are sometimes asked why tendons appear white and glistening rather than red like muscle tissue, with the expected answer noting that tendons contain very little blood supply compared with the muscle they serve, since their role is purely mechanical rather than metabolically active. This is also why a doctor may check the ability to point the toes or flex the wrist when assessing a suspected tendon injury, since the movement itself, not just visible swelling, reveals whether force is still being transmitted properly.

Example

A candidate correctly explains a torn Achilles tendon by writing: 'The tendon connecting the calf muscle to the heel bone was damaged, so the muscle's pull could no longer be transmitted to the bone, preventing the foot from being pointed downward.'

Related terms

Antagonistic musclesLigamentExoskeleton

Source:SRC-DSKP-EN