I was extremely relieved that my oral presentation on 'Where is the baby boom' was finally over, but I personally think that I could probably have done much better.
Firstly, compared to my mock presentations and peer teaching presentation, I felt that I was less steady for the oral presentation. I encountered problems with the use of the remote mouse. Since I have never used it before in an actual presentation and was unfamiliar with it, I pressed the wrong buttons and it caused my speech and slides to be incoherent, as well as resulting in some technical difficulties. These unforseen circumstances made me nervous throughout the presentation, which affected my confidence and overall performance.
Secondly, the Question and Answer (Q&A) session was more intimidating than I thought. Even though I know my project topic and content well, nerves still got to me when our classmates posed questions which my teammates and I had not anticipated. There was a particular question which I didn't think I answered well, as I had difficulty processing the question in my mind quickly enough to provide a satisfactory answer. The consequence was that I stumbled on what I wanted to say, kept repeating and emphasizing on a certain phrase as I was unable to come up with a more well-thought solution due to extreme pressure and time constraint. That also left the audience unclear of what I was trying to express.
However, there were still a few positives to take from my performance during the oral presentation.
For instance, I attempted to inject some enthusiasm while presenting. This enthusiasm not only engaged the audience, but also helped to maintain my confidence and mask my nervousness.
In addition, I tried to keep calm even though I made mistakes during the presentation. It enabled me to recover quickly and focus on what to do next.
I also feel that Sofie, Jiewei, Zhuang Wei and I have great camaraderie through much practice prior to the presentation. Our transitions were generally smooth and we managed to help one another out during the Q&A session when we observed that any one of us was struggling with coming up with a satisfactory answer to a specific question.
I was also glad that the rest of the class were actively raising their doubts and suggesting better approaches and solutions for us. This helped us explore questions that we had never thought about or solutions that we had never considered. The discussion also improved everyone's understanding on the topic, which resulted in a win-win situation.
