Presentation Perceptions

Photo Credit to Pavel Danilyuk

When it comes to presentations in school, I like to describe them as “hit or miss” experiences. I feel like that phrase is a good descriptor for the overall feeling of giving a presentation. Some people don’t mind them; this acts as their golden moment. 

This moment of confidence demonstrates their knowledge of an intended topic. You can even see it in their eyes when they realize that it wasn’t so bad, and they had nothing to worry about. For others, a presentation can cause a constant state of dread and pack on a mental weight that is consumed by anxiety and even sleepless nights. 

Some assignments and projects energize people who receive them; the ideals of learning and sharing that information with others can make someone feel thrilled. For some, that can completely overwhelm them and make it difficult to move forward. The outcome of a presentation can vary depending on factors such as the environment in which the presentation is performed, the amount of advanced preparation, the interest your topic brings and the structure you decide to follow. Because of this, there are many directions in which the presentations can go.  

When looking at them from an academic perspective, they are powerful tools that help you learn lifelong skills that carry over into your career, no matter which type you decide to pursue. 

But for me, I just think that they are a great way to showcase the things that you have learned that also resonate with the value you find within the subject. It’s not just about memorization, but the retention of information and how you can articulate that to an audience. 

Presentations also help you with public speaking, collaboration and time management abilities. They will develop far beyond the walls of your classroom. I remembered the first time I gave a presentation in a college classroom. I was thinking about how this felt a bit redundant because I had practiced so much that it was as normal as starting a conversation with my sister. 

Many careers hold the standard true that being able to present ideas clearly is just as important as having the ideas in the first place. On the other hand, presentations can miss the mark entirely, and that can happen easily for some people. One of the main things that can break a presentation is anxiety. Specifically, zooming in on the realm of public speaking. When I first started my school career, we had to give a presentation about ourselves. I went up and felt like the only thing I knew well enough to talk about for five minutes was myself. I know how self-centered that sounds, but no one ever listened to me talk, so I didn’t know what to talk about when I got the chance. I ended up saying at most twenty words in those five minutes. Guess I didn’t know as much about myself as I thought back then. 

I hated having that creeping feeling that others are judging you in more ways than one. It always made me feel a bit intimidated. I feel like this is a shared feeling, even for the students who know their material well. The shaking of the voice and the slight hand tremors, and don’t forget the stomach turns. Anxiety can take a real chunk of the passion for learning. When fear takes over, it's hard to put other things first.

Not all presentations get presented at their full potential; the level of preparedness that goes into them is very important. This especially goes for group presentations. I really hate group presentations. I swear, they are the death of me. However, they can bring awareness to readiness and the amount of effort each member has put into the presentation. Some students tend to do way more work than others, while some students slap their name on the project and get a good grade. 

As I have gotten older, I have learned to appreciate presentations. Although my feelings of hatred towards them will forever stand, they bring qualities that we need to bring to the table for practice. We need more practice in terms of communication at the public level and the encouragement of our own self-confidence.