Hi there.
Hope everyone’s good.
I know I am. I had a good week. I mentioned on my last post that I had a few presentations coming up. They were good thank God. My group actually came 2nd out of 32 in the oral presentations.
It was nice to see all of our hard work pay off.
I have to admit, I was very nervous about the presentations and was already stressing out weeks before lol. But if I’ve learnt anything, I know that the only way to combat the nerves is to practice. Over and over again.
I won’t be the best person to give advice on presenting, but I’ve found that the following work for me:
- Writing out a script beforehand:
This isn’t for memorisation per se. Because if I try to cram a speech, I’ll be setting myself up for failure. But writing out what I plant to say beforehand really helps to organise my thoughts.
- Timing myself:
Just practicing in front of a mirror with a timer or getting a friend to watch and give feedback really helps. Also, they can ask questions about your presentation in order to give you an idea of what the audience might ask on the actual day.
- Having a flashcard:
On the day of the presentation, it helps to have a flashcard with the first sentence of your slide alone. No doubt standing in front of a crowd can make you forget everything you practiced but seeing just that one line can really help to jumpstart your brain lol.
- Don’t focus on the audience:
Another tip is to look over the heads in the audience and not at one specific person so you don’t get stuck or distracted.
- Have lots of water before starting:
Unfortunately, this is from personal experience haha. I was speaking and my mouth suddenly went so dry I couldn’t feel my tongue ☹. I like to think I recovered quite quickly though lol.
Anyway, semester Is in full swing now and I’m looking forward to seeing what it has in store.
Till next time.
