College Student Presentations Tips

How do we prepare college student presentations?

At some point in college, you will be asked to deliver a presentation, and you must be prepared for the anxiety that comes with the occasion. If you’re already at this stage, congratulations. It most likely means you’re getting to the end of your time as a college student. Whatever the case is, you may not have gotten the opportunity to develop your confidence and footing as a presenter. Normally, you’ve spent most of your time as a student, rather than trying to be a presenter. However, it can be extremely intimidating when you’re asked to deliver a presentation, especially when many people attend. It may be the first time you’re presenting, and your academic grades are at stake. This is a common situation that students find themselves in, so you can be sure that you’re not the first one in this situation and that you’re not alone. You should know that almost everybody gets anxious before a presentation, even the seemingly seasoned ones. 

Fortunately, you have a ton of tricks and tips that you can use to deal with this anxiety and fear that you have and ensure you maximize your delivery. The biggest antidote to presentation anxiety is proper preparation. If you’re more than prepared for it, you will have far less reason to be anxious. You’ll get confidence from the amount of work you’ve put in for the college student presentations and will be excited to deliver them. 

This article tell some insight into college student presentation tips. Help you be a better presenter and maximize your delivery and make you feel more confident instead of anxious.

1. Know your audience

The first step to delivering good college student presentations is knowing your audience. To do well at your presentation, you must prepare for your audience; you can’t do this without knowing them. You might find this easier in this scenario because you’re mostly presenting to your lecturers and fellow students, so you’re likely to be on the same page with the other students. However, you still have to ensure that your presentation focuses on something that interests the audience. Ensure to expound on these interests while presenting. 

2. Use beautiful visuals

When you pay for an essay at professional essay writing services like pro essay writing, you’re paying to get blocks of texts, and your lecturer would grade it excellently. But when you’re presenting, no one wants to see a block of texts. Everyone in the audience wants to see beautiful visual aids. That’s why it’s called a ‘presentation.’ You don’t want to have a presentation in which you talk to a group of bored and disinterested people. You can save that stress and make your audience more interested by using appropriate visual aids throughout your presentation. Add charts, images, graphs and illustrations, infographics, and other media types to your presentation to make it more interesting for your audience. For instance, short video clips can help you convey your message effectively. You can use the visual aid to ensure that you remain on track. This gives you more variety and grabs the audience’s attention. So,  visual aids ensure that you remain on track. 

3. Use only the most important key points

As a student presenter, you’re likely to say too much about your topic. Instead of filling up your slides with content, use only the key points. You don’t want your slides and overall presentation to appear complex. So, use lots of bullet points instead of paragraphs. Ensure to write only the main points in the simplest possible way. When it comes to presentation, less is more. Your visuals should do the talking for you. 

4. Use 3-4 points per slide

You may not know that your slide is already overloaded with information, but anything more than 3-4 points, or a maximum of 5 points per slide, is enough. Anything more than that is already an overload of information, and your audience could struggle to get anything from it. The information you’re conveying should come out of your mouth, not on the slide. 

5. Add relevant and professional images

It’s not enough to simply add any visual aid to your presentation. Whether beautiful or not, you must ensure that your images are professional and relevant. The goal of the visual aid is to ‘aid’ you to pass your point across, not to amuse the audience. So, it’s not useful if it’s not relevant to your overall point. Your presentation is formal, so the images must be professional. If you’re using someone else’s image, ensure to credit them for it. 

6. Know more than you can share

Your presentation topic has to be a subject that you’re an expert at. A sure way to stress yourself for a presentation is to pick a topic you know nothing about. Unless you’re diligent enough to carry out in-depth research and learn everything that there is about the topic, you’ll struggle during your presentation. You shouldn’t only know what’s on your slide. You should know all the boundaries and ramifications of the topic. It helps you to be better prepared and more confident. While your presentation only covers the key points, you should know many other things not present on your slides. This ensures you’re better prepared for the inevitable questions from your audience. 

Lastly, don’t panic if you get a question you can’t answer, don’t panic! Tell the audience you’ll look into the question and follow up later. However, it’s best if you don’t have too many questions to look into. That’s why you should know your topic extensively. 

7. Pace yourself 

Try not to speak too fast during your presentation. You’ll be allowing your anxiety to get the better of you. Take your time and pace yourself. You can try to calm yourself with breathing techniques, or whatever works for you, but don’t give in to those nerves. You pass off the wrong impression if you rush through your slides. Not only does it become obvious you lack confidence, but it also makes you appear unprepared. So, pace your speech. Add silence and pauses to make it more impactful. Work on your pace during rehearsals to exude confidence and command of that topic. 

8. Show your personality

You can as well do more than present slides to your audience and present yourself. Typically, students adopt a stiff and formal tone or speech during their college presentation, but who says you can’t add a little extra? You can break off that stiff and boring tone and show your personality in your presentation. Make it conversational. This way, it becomes more relatable for the audience while retaining the professional tone you’re expected to use. It may help you to understand the most effective communication method for your audience and adopt it. 

9. Use a simple and readable font

Ensure your font isn’t smaller than 30pt. Also, ensure your color schemes are conservative and use contrasting colors that are more readable. A common example of this is a light background and a dark font. This works perfectly. Share very little information on each slide, using a large-enough font. 

See also: Presentation in PowerPoint: How to Make a Student’s Presentation by Connie Elser

Conclusion

College student presentations aren’t as difficult as you think it is, and you would realize this once you’re done presenting. All the fear and anxiety vanish, and you wonder if it was worth that much stress. However, this would only happen if you prepared well for your presentation. Otherwise, you could get buried in the anxiety and fail on stage. Good luck!

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