Gail Wetzstein-Kirchner

ACT 2013

• My position at ACT was as a reader of essays written by students whose goal was to be admitted to a Graduate Program at The University of Iowa. I read the question posed to the student, then read the answer given making sure their answers were complete and addressed every aspect of the question. I had to be careful in my reading and understanding of the answer, knowing that the main grader, a computer-generated grader, would be something that took all parts of the answer into consideration and my answer should fall into a close relationship with that computer. The closer my answer was to the computer's answer, the better my score would be. I also had to keep in mind the fact that the students who took this test were nonnative speakers so I had to be lenient because their grammar and spelling might not always be perfect. If, however, their language was below what it should be, I would take points away from that answer, something that rarely happened. After one test was finished, we would discuss the question, the answer, and the content! It seemed like a college class discussion and was highly informative and interesting.

• I admitted transfer students or sent their files to Committee for review, checked transcripts and college test scores for authenticity; reviewed high school transcripts for completion of the required college prep courses, the required math courses, the required natural science courses, the required social studies, and foreign language courses.
• I input data necessary for record keeping while reviewing students’ records and making decisions on their information.
• Data had to be correct and was proofread by me for completion and accuracy.
• I reviewed the college transcripts to make sure the student was admissible to The University of Iowa.
• If the grade-point average was high enough to be admissible and the student had taken the required high school courses, I would admit the student, after which I would evaluate the coursework to see if the student completed General Education Requirements and then use those courses for those requirements.
• When that student began taking courses, they would know which general education requirements they had yet to complete.
• As far as major requirements were concerned, that issue would be discussed with the students’ academic advisers and major advisers.
• This would eventually change so that Record Analysts would make these decisions by comparing course descriptions to see if those courses would be equivalent to our University of Iowa courses or if they would be similar to our General Education Courses.
• Once we made that decision, we would add them to our Course Equivalency System so that in the future, these evaluated courses would be used automatically by Record Analysts when we articulated the transcripts for students.
• During this time, I proofread business letters, manuals, essays, and other documents written by colleagues.
• I also did special projects for my Director of Admissions, analyzed recruited students application materials, carefully reviewing all their documents and transcripts making sure the test scores submitted were official, and did my own g.p.a. calculations to be positive their grade points were high enough to be admitted leaving out courses that were not high school college prep courses.
• It took time and I had to be precise.

• In the 1970's, we did not have the computer usage we have currently so most of the letters were hand typed and had to be proofread by the typist carefully.
• As time went on, computer generated letters were used and we could put out more letters daily.
• Technology picked up as well as our letter typing system.
• I soon became the typing area Lead and read letters for complete accuracy.
• I also served as secretary for some management when their secretaries were out.
• I listened to dictaphones and heard recordings of Directors speaking while I wrote what they said and typed the letters that had been recorded.
• We were able to get out hundreds of letters per day with three people plus me.
• It was very fulfilling to be able to send out letters that I knew were typed accurately by all the typists.