Presentation Self-Critique

Few people give me constructive feedback when I give presentations. So I self-critique the best I can - and that, is the content of this post.

The worst problem I had was incoherence. A random peer from one of my other chemistry classes peeking in would have absolutely no idea what I was talking about. And that would be my fault for being completely incomprehensible. I was speaking gibberish, except all the syllables sound like English.

Part of that was a time crunch - I had half an hour and more than 30 slides. Which means I talked fast and skipped stuff and made incorrect statements and forgot to mention half the things I wanted to mention (kind of like that run-on sentence). Bad. I ended up finishing with 5 minutes to spare, which is an indication of just how hurried I was. Speed, clarity, and long phrases: pick two out of three.

Instead of ums and ahs and pauses, I do this: "...blah blah blah ok let me try that again". As in, I literally say "blah blah blah" when I screw up pronunciation or lose my train of thought.

I also noticed that I was blushing. My face got unusually warm, and stayed that way for half an hour. Clearly a sign of nervous train-wreckitude.

The presentation was definitely under-rehearsed. I usually rehearse presentations in my head before I present them; this time, I didn't because there were better things to do.

The one and only good thing about the presentation is that the professor liked my figures. Well, that and everyone in the class were too nice to say anything negative about the presentation, although that's not necessarily a good thing per se. (That might change with time.)

Anyway, whew, one thing off my chest. Now I can sit back and enjoy other students' presentations for awhile before I have to do another one.

(And now: I neeed to finish PMath!)