Reflection on Oral Presentation

Looking back at our group's presentation, I feel that we have done a pretty good job from preparation to the question and answer session. It was really enjoyable to work with Hui Ping, Isabel and Ming Yan and I will remember the night how we rehearsed the presentation while strangers walk past us with their surprised expression! Preparation had never been so enjoyable.

The preparation of the slides was never easy, especially with so much content to cover. We spent a lot of time restructuring and fine tuning the slides to ensure that there were no overlaps in content for each speaker. The effort put in was worthwhile as the transition between each speaker for the final presentation was smooth. The smooth flow also enabled us to retain the interest of the audience.

During our rehearsal, we gave comments to each other and I found it extremely helpful, especially with certain pronunciation of words. As for individual preparation, I was inspired by Ming Yan, who practised her parts non stop for many times! Practice makes perfect - I rehearsed several times too. However, from my own rehearsals, I felt that my best rehearsal was during my shower! There were no hiccups and everything seems to be in place as compared to rehearsing in my room. I think for a good presentation, we have to feel relax and definitely put in enough effort during preparation.

For the presentation proper, I felt I was rather steady initially and while my part was ending, I seem to lose focus and start to forget things. Thankfully, I prepared sufficiently to pull it off. Eye contact during presentation was always emphasized during our lessons. It is not only a way to engage the audience but also give yourself confidence. As I was presenting, I could see that my audience were very interested in what I am presenting, this provided me with positive feedback and I became less nervous.

As for the Question and Answer session, I found it really interactive and I was able to put to what I had learnt to practise (like rephrasing the question to buy more time to formulate the answer). I believe that preparing for the Question and Answer had helped us anticipated many questions. We were also very clear what our Essential Life Skills proposal wants to deliver, it allowed us to answer the questions with a uniform stand.

I feel that one challenge of this presentation is to incorporate creativity into the presentation. As the purpose of this presentation was to convince the Provost of our proposal, it was very restrictive to be innovative as the slides had to be somewhat formal. I guess we could have improved on the creativity portion probably with a bit more animation or perhaps more significant and powerful pictures to complement our points.

Once again I would like to thank my wonderful group mates! I think I wrote too much again!