20 Steps to Appear Smart During a Presentation

Here are 5 things that occasionally haunt my nightmares, even though I’ve graduated from college already:

• I forgot a project was due today.
• I missed an exam because I overslept.
• I missed a presentation deadline.
• I go into an exam completely unprepared.

We’ve all been there. One thing almost every single student has experienced is having to create a presentation last minute. There are so many excuses for it: an impromptu party thrown in your apartment; a last-minute date invitation from your crush; or, considering the new reality Covid is imposing on us: oversleeping during the day… The sad part is that the presentation usually ends up looking extremely unprofessional and it is crystal clear that you prepared it last minute.

I’m here to tell you: those days are over. Here are 20 tips to let you appear as if you know your content back and forth during a presentation.

1. Open the floor for a class discussion in the beginning.
2. When in doubt, ask a question about the slide to your audience so that they can bring out the main message that you are unclear about; then “piggyback” off that answer.
3. Overuse facial expressions and hand gestures.
4. Pace around the room and make eye contact with the audience.
5. Reiterate a point slowly.
6. Make fun of yourself when you think you’ve made a mistake saying “I probably shouldn’t have pulled an all-nighter to prepare this presentation” (when in reality, it took you about 10 minutes to prepare it).
7. Use A LOT of visuals and even a video to exhaust the presentation timer. (Putting the video first also takes some necessary explaining off your shoulders)
8. Have a smart design or layout( you can use presentation tools like Decktopus for professional-looking templates).
9. Translate the statistics as you go over them: such as referring to 75% as “That means that 3 in 4 people…”.
10. When lost, take a step back to remember “the big picture” by saying “I just want to go back to the earlier point so that we are super clear”
11. Recreate diagrams or charts on the blackboard.
12. Use quotes so that experts can explain your point for you.
13. When you are asked a question you don’t know, redirect the question to the audience by saying “That’s a great question. Why don’t we let our peers answer that to see if they got the main message.”
14. Use big fonts and gifs.
15. When you come across a slide whose content you’re unsure about, skip the slide by saying “I am unsure about the sources of this material so I’m gonna have to double-check and get back to you later on this”.
16. Start the presentation by saying “I don’t wanna exhaust anyone’s attention or time so I’m gonna keep this clean and simple”.
17. Jump into a personal anecdote for comedic relief.
18. Dress smart.
19. Exhibit an undue amount of confidence.
20. Overemphasize how exciting you found your presentation topic.

A lot of people think they have to go into exorbitant amounts of detail to appear as if they know it all during presentations. The truth is, that is simply not true. Many audiences crave straightforward and simple delivery; so detail is a secondary need. In fact, research by the famous scientist Oppenheimer revealed that about 85% of the Stanford student body use long words to sound smarter while simple sentences actually make you sound smarter. Keep these tips in mind the next time you are in front of an audience trying to deliver a presentation that you’ve barely prepared for.