<p>It was in the passage about the two Indian girls and their grandmother and great aunt. The two elderly women were fighting over the position of the bed and the girls were watching them like tennis court spectators, back and forth.</p>
<p>what was the questions for the idealistic/realistic answers?</p>
<p>@swoony, hopefully it will turn out that way. There seems to be a lot of debate on the Critical Reading Section much like 10/11. But the vocabulary was easier than normal so the curve should reflect that. If I had to pick one administration that would be the most reflective of this time it would be 10/09. </p>
<p>When I took the October 2011, I scored poorly, because of an experimental reading; but, because of the generous curve, the score actually turned out quite well.</p>
<p>It’s pedantic, not snide, and repetition is definitely right. “loses” was repeated thrice and something was repeated 3 times in the beginning of the paragraph as well. also i don’t remember an answer with systematically discredits</p>
<p>@swoony</p>
<p>Yeah, exactly, but it was more “casual” than “paying close attention”</p>
<p>@Wharton Tennis spectators do not watch casually. Their heads were described as swinging back and forth, which sure sounds like close attention to me.</p>
<p>Edit: And snide was absolutely correct. It was a comedic, biting description, and it fit snide to a tee.</p>
<p>Please, SAT GODS please let the answer be pedantic! It asked what he characterized the army as… the ARMY ITSELF was not SNIDE.</p>
<p>And I watch tennis, YOU DO NOT WATCH CASUALLY, if you do you will miss the whole game. If their heads move back and forth it means that they are attentive.</p>
<p>@Shredding that was my reasoning exactly.
@Banned I don’t get how it was pedantic. Pedantic means focusing in on minute details (in a negative way)</p>
<p>I concur. The answers to the tennis simile and the snide/pedantic questions were “close attention” and “snide” respectively.</p>
<p>Plus even if the question was “how did the author characterize the army”, he characterizes them as overly idealistic, not pedantic, which means preoccupied with formalisms.</p>
<p>@Shredding: it asked for how he characterized the army. the army was pedantic, he was snide</p>
<p>Yeah you guys are right… I remember being hesitant but maybe I put closely because the girl describes meticulously what happens anyway</p>
<p>@wynter exactly. The question asked what he characterized the army AS, not what he thought OF the army. Pedantic can also mean caring about useless stuff- the universities were caring to much about the philosophies when they should be focused on the learning aspect.</p>
<p>Pedantic is also used mainly to describe teaching</p>
<p>Pedantic might be used to describe teaching, but I don’t think it’s the correct word in this context. You’d use the word to describe a stuffy, old academic or a grammar nazi, not an army of idealistic people.</p>
<p>could anyone tell me if I have around 8-12 questions wrong, what are the scores I’m looking at ( considering on my last practice test on the collegeboard online course I got 18 wrong and 600…)</p>
<p>A secondary definition of pedantic is “Like a pedant, overly concerned with trivial points of learning.” The army, in the author’s opinion, cared too much about the superfluous parts of learning and he thought that the universities should focus more on the book-smart aspect of learning.</p>
<p>I understand your point, but I respectfully disagree. The connotation of pedantic doesn’t fit with his depiction, regardless of what the word’s formal definition is.</p>
<p>But then why would he characterize the army as snide? That was how he viewed the army, not how he characterized it.</p>
<p>@bannedhero No, the question was what best defines his CHARACTERIZATION, not the army.</p>
<p>I thought the question read something along the lines of “The authors description of the ‘army’ can be characterized as _____ .” I could have misread it. And I suppose it’s not my place to say, but I still don’t think that pedantic is the proper word to describe the army, even if college board says it’s the answer.</p>