Reflection on Oral Presentation =)

The experience I gained from this presentation has indeed impacted my life! This may sound exaggerating, but it is indeed how I feel. =) I have always been very nervous when presenting in front of a group of people. Therefore, having been through this oral presentation with PatCaLie has instill a greater confidence level in my presentation and communication skills.

Reflection: Before the Oral Presentation

This is the first time whereby I created my slides with more images than words to bring across my point. In the past, I depend greatly on my slides for the bullet points. This time round I choose to create my oral presentation to emphasize on my speech rather than my slides. Indeed, this is a much appropriate approach to convey ideas to the audience. Of course, it is no doubt that the slides are essential helpers in my presentation.

However, I admit that my group’s presentation is slightly repetitive in certain parts of the presentation. The night before the presentation, we realize that, we did omit some parts. However, we are quite indecisive on which areas to shorten as every point seems to be supportive of each other. We should have prepared less content and allowed more buffer time instead.

As mentioned by Patrick, rehearsals are extremely important. The first rehearsal is the most difficult time for me. It is due to the fact that thinking through your words and verbally articulating your words are not equivalent. For the first try, I was so anxious that the transition between slides was very awkward. And, I skipped a lot of points that I intended to mention in a rush manner. I even laughed out a few times due to my nervousness. This improved as we rehearsed a few more rounds. In addition, the presence of friends, actually help to improve on the clarity of the explanation of my key ideas. The sequence of the slides was changed to allow better flow of the whole presentation.

Reflection: During the Oral Presentation

On the exact day of presentation, I was constantly trying to recap the key points when the first group was presenting. But, it was quite confusing to listen and to think about something else. Hence, I kept reminding myself to relax and concentrate on the first group’s presentation.

When I started the introduction of my group, I suddenly remembered the feedbacks for the previous peer teaching; hence I raised my volume abruptly. I am still wondering if anyone realizes I did that. I feel that my pronunciation of certain words were not sufficiently clear. In addition, I added a lot of “s” behind words unnecessarily. Moreover, the word “actually” was used quite often. And, time management could be improved. =)

I did maintain comfortable eye contact with the audience. This is a great improvement for me, as I tend to get nervous upon direct eye contact. Moreover, I think I did not stand in a stiff manner, and this actually helps to calm my mood during the oral presentation. The ability to catch the audience’s attention and interest is an important point to take note in any presentation. In my group presentation, we engaged some selected student representatives to keep the presentation light-hearted and not too boring. I used varied tones to aid in this too. =)

Thanks for the supportive nods and smiles from everyone during the oral presentation! Of course, special thanks to my group members, Brad and everyone for the help to improve in any areas of the project and oral presentation! =)