It's been awhile since the last post and plenty of things have passed. One of the more important events was the dreaded Oral Presentation for CG1413.
The preparation towards the final oral presentation was not an easy one. With the CG1102 and CG1108 projects happening concurrently, deadlines were reaching, fast.
Soon, it was Monday, 22nd March - the day of presentation. After a long haul of preparation work, it was over in a mere 40 minutes. Even with relief, the group did not feel great about the presentation.
Looking back at the video, there were a couple of points to take back.
First off, the whole time during my part of the presentation, I was jittery and unsure of my speech. Due to this, I was caught looking at my cue cards more often than not which led to little eye contact with the audience. Also, I stumbled on my words and spoke too quickly. I thought it boiled down to insufficient preparation on my part; not spending enough time to rehearse and memorizing the lines of my speech.
Another point was that as a whole, our group presentation was long. It did not help that the content was dry as well making it, at times, unbearable for the audience. Also noting that we crossed the time limit, we should have made it more concise and straight to the point. We should have left out the less important points to make our presentation more focused.
However, one thing that was fairly better was that during the Q&A session, each of us contributed, helping one another to answer the questions. This showed "group spirit" within the 4 of us and somehow made the Q&A easier.
Reflecting on this, I must say that the presentation was not a very good one and there are still a lot of things to learn and work on.
March 31, 2010 at 6:33 PM
Hi Qinxian,
I would like to highlight the visual aids used in your presentation. Looking back at the presentation slides demonstration we had 2 weeks ago, the slides used in the actual presentation last week were a great improvement. The points were more brief and concise and the pictures were much clearer. Good job for your team! :)
As to the presentation, it is good that you were able to notice the presentation aspects that could still be improved. This will help you a lot in serving as a guide for the next oral presentation. Next time, which is the Oral Defense, I know that you will be even better.
In my opinion, I find it be very informative for self-evaluation by merely watching the recorded videos and seeing how we presented ourselves to the audience/listeners. This way, we can readily assess the performance and identify/pinpoint rooms for improvement and positively work on them.
It’s true that rehearsing and practicing will help us become better presenters as we all are aware of the phrase, “Practice makes perfect,” right? Therefore, the least we can do is to keep on practicing to achieve the improvements we are aiming for.
All the best for the Oral Defense!
Regards,
Paul
April 2, 2010 at 12:30 AM
Hi Qinxian !
Although your group may not have performed as optimally as hoped, I do feel that your group had presented an interesting albeit controversial solution to Singapore's energy crisis. It is evident that a lot of effort went into the project from the factual research done to the gathering of response from the populace on the proposed solution.
All that hard work unfortunately does not translate into an effective and concise presentation. Other than the rather lengthy presentation, your team as you point out could have done much better with more practice.
Qinxian, you came across as a confident speaker although there were several moments when you pause to collect your thoughts. Also,you made an attempt to engage with the audience by maintaining eye contact and stressing on the important points in your presentation.
However, I believe with practice and experience, your team could work on making a smooth transition between speakers and syncing the points reflected on the slides with the oral delivery.
I believe with practice and hard work, all of us can be the effective presenters we are meant to be.
Best Regards,
Khairul
April 2, 2010 at 4:35 AM
Hi Qinxian,
First of all, the topic which your group has presented is one of the biggest problems which the world is going to face in the near future. In my opinion I think you did a commendable job but overall, your group didn’t perform up to the potential.
Secondly, though the presentation was lengthy, I came to know that your group has done a lot of research on the topic which I could see it from the slides and I think it is very important for an effective presentation. My group faced the same situation during the Oral presentation 1 as the presentation was too long and as a result we failed to attract the audience because of that. So, it is a lesson for all of us and we should make sure we don’t repeat it once again.
However I should admit that you had a good eye contact with the audience and the pace was good enough that your message was clearly understood by audience and your communication was really effective.
The primary reason for both of our group’s failure is lack of practice. To be honest my group thought of having a rehearsal before the actual presentation but unfortunately we couldn’t have it and quite a few times, I felt a bit nervous during my presentation because of lack of practice. So, it is true that practices makes life perfect and let’s implement it in the forthcoming presentations.
Overall, A good performance from you and let’s improve our presentation skills from this module.
Regards,
Santhosh
April 2, 2010 at 9:14 AM
Hi Qin Xian,
I agree that it’s definitely a relief that the OP2 was over! From the slides, I could really tell the amount of hard work you and the team mates put in to ensure that the information was detailed and thorough for the presentation.
The individual parts of your presentation contained a lot of information and fortunately, the slides were really helpful in helping to register the information! I thought that you started off with a comfortable pace and you appeared professional yet relaxed from your body posture and tone. It is commendable that although you paused shortly a few times, you managed to gain back the momentum and continued displaying the appropriate body gestures and maintained eye contact with the audience!
The topic your group has chosen is really quite broad and it must have been quite difficult to cut down the content during the presentation itself upon realising that the time limit had been exceeded. Hence, again, it brings us back to the issue of rehearsing well before the presentation. Like you’ve mentioned to others, practising is truly crucial to prepare us for the presentation so in the future presentations, I hope that you will be able to do a satisfactory job and up to your expectations!
Regards,
Win Yee
April 2, 2010 at 2:18 PM
Hi Qinxian,
I have to agree with you that the moment the OP2 got over, we all were relived. After weeks of tension and preparing, it was finally over. A sense of accomplishment indeed!
Reflecting on you as a speaker, I feel you come across as a confident and a good speaker. Even in OP1 (same team huh) I felt that your voice was loud and clear. You enunciate your words distinctly, which makes life simple for the audiences. In fact I felt you have made significant improvements from OP1, though lack of rehearsals became a bit evident midway through your team’s presentation. Referring to the cue cards is nothing wrong (that is what they are for!), but excess of anything is bad. Anyways, use of cue cards instead of a written speech (like OP1) is any day better.
Interestingly, I feel that your presentation slides were not at all dry. They were able to capture my attention and at no point I felt bored or lost. They were short, concise and followed the seven C’s. I feel that the presentation run through we had a week before the presentation allowed us to come up with improved slides.
I would like to wish you all the best for our team’s Oral Defence. I hope we all are able to come up with an improved performance.
Cheers,
Saurabh Arora
April 3, 2010 at 7:41 AM
Hi Qinxian,
It is very true that we all had a hard time during that presentation/projects timeframe. It’s like a primary school kid trying to stuff all his textbooks into his schoolbag; the bag never seems to be big enough for the kid.
Nevertheless, we survived the busy week, but I did not have the same feelings as you did after the presentation; I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand we should be happy about it, as the amount of effort and preparations put into the project is astounding. On the other hand... well....
First off, I have something to say about the part in your post where you mentioned that you were jittery, unsure, and appeared unconfident. In my opinion, I think you were doing a great job. In fact, I felt that you were the most ‘steady’ amongst our team(being the big guy and all...).
I agree with your point that our group could have been more prepared. There are so many more things we could have done, and it is only until the end of the presentation that we realized our shortcomings.
It is still not too late, as this is only a stepping stone our future. We are still only year one students; it is inevitable we make mistakes. What is important is that we learn from it.
Cheers
Zhen Yong